Asta dress

So I read about the Monthly Stitch Indie Pattern Month before it started and I quickly decided that it would be nice but I just wouldn’t have time to participate… that was until Monday of course when I finally decided to give a try. So I raided my fabric stash and my pattern stash too and set my eyes on a blue and black jersey I bought a year ago from Fabworks and the Asta pattern dress by Wardrobe by Me that I bought during the Black Friday sale last year but hadn’t even printed yet.

The weather has become a lot colder here so although I was leaning towards the boat neck at the beginning, I decided to cut the lower funnel neck. 

To stay focused, I tried to fit a little bit of sewing every night (and also 2 or 3 other projects…). I finished the dress last night which meant that I could wear it today, perfect for the bright chilly weather we had. 

I cut the pattern to my size and assembled it without any alteration and the fit is rather good.

I wonder about shortening the length of the skirt but decided against it as I thought it would look good with boots in the winter. (Now I need to buy boots of course!)

The sleeves came out rather long, which I much prefer to keep warm in the winter! 

The only thing that came up with this dress is that as the skirt is made of 4 panels, there is a seam in the middle of the front and back which of course is something to think about with repeats in fabric (and which I hadn’t thought of….) So the front seam is OK I think, the back one a lot more obvious.

Now I like the fit and the design of the dress, and the fabric/colour combination gives a little oriental feel, which I really love. I am happy to have used up some of my stash and made a dress in a week (which I would not have done without the challenge I know!)

I even continued to dig through my stash and printed another pattern I had already bought the Raine dress by Jennifer Lauren Handmade and found some fabric I had in my cupboard too. Of course, there was no time for a second dress this week but I am very happy to have taken part in the challenge after all.

Celine