I’ve finally made some dresses for me!
I bought some ponte roma jersey fabric around 2 years ago and it’s been sitting in the cupboard waiting to be cut up and sewn. Over the last few weeks I’ve finally done it – I’ve cut out and made up not 1 but 3 dresses!
I bought a copy of Sew Magazine which came with New Look K6023 so I thought I’d use this pattern for my creations.
I wanted a simple dress pattern so I adapted K603 to sew up my new creations. I like the princess seams and midriff band but I’m not too fussed about the additional neck band or tabs at the waist – they would be great on a non-stretch fabric but they weren’t going to work with the jersey material so I left them out.
For my first dress I used style D
As I was using a stretch fabric I opted for a size 14 instead of cutting a size 16 which I would have needed for a non stretch fabric.
As the dress was to be made in a stretch fabric, the finished garment wouldn’t require a zip so I had to make some adjustments to the back pattern pieces.
I didn’t want to have a vent pleat in the centre back of the skirt so I folded the pattern along the seam line (1.5cm from the edge) and then cut this piece on the fold.
I did the same with the back bodice pattern, folding along the seam line and cutting this piece on the fold.
The front of the dress was a little high so I cut this down along the neckline. I didn’t want to cut the pattern so I’ve drawn the line onto the pattern and then just cut the fabric. – just in case I want to use this style for another project.
I drafted a combined facing for the armholes and neckline instead of the separate neckline and armhole facings which came with the pattern.
I also added an extra 10cm to the hemline as I’m quite tall and wanted the hemline to come closer to my knees.
I’m quite pleased with the final result!
I love this dress – the colour looks great and it’s really comfortable. It had its first outing to the ‘Frocktails’ Dressmakers Social in Brighton a few weeks ago and I know I’m going to wear it lots more as it’s great for work and going out! There’s some pictures of me in my dress on the Dressmakers Social blog.
