We had a long weekend here in Melbourne and despite all of Sunday being a write-off due to a little too much fun on Saturday night I still managed to get some decent sewing done. I also learnt how to knit rib – hooray!
I spent nearly all of Saturday at Can Do Books for the Sew Melbourne Meetup. The morning was dedicated to sewing and I was able to get a good amount of the red dress sewn. It didn’t help that I left my sewing pedals and power cords at home and had to make an extra trip in horrible Melbourne traffic to go and pick them up. I am not very good at being mobile with my sewing gear. There is always so much to take. How do people remember it all? Tips please? I should probably start with a decent case or trolley to take things in, although my sewing machine manages to fit in my suitcase perfectly!
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| Sewing machine in a suitcase – A perfect fit |
It was great to meet all the lovely Looped ladies and while it seemed like some super-fast knitters were able to whip up scarves and crochet rugs in just a few hours – this is all I managed to create.
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| My first successful piece of knit 1, purl 1 |
As much fun as I had on Saturday night, I was annoyed about a wasted weekend day spent zoned out on the couch with a hangover but at least Monday was a bonus day to sew. After an extended, delicious and mushroomy brunch at Proud Mary I only had the afternoon free but it was more than enough to finish up this dress. (Excuse the tired face and wrinkled dress. I wore this to work today followed by a trip to the theatre to see the very intense Macbeth)
Anyway, I am not the only one who has been sewing Simplicity 2053. Trena from the Slapdash Sewist also just finished this dress. It seems we have some of the same issues with the dress despite having opposite fit challenges to deal with. While I would normally do a FBA. I knew from a dress I previously made with this pattern that the fit would be fine (It’s the one shoulder full length version that you can see in the top left of this post). But as with Trena’s dress there is something odd with the pleats at the bust. This wasn’t as obvious in the other version.
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| The back is a little loose |
The benefit to making this out of the stretch is that you can completely eliminate the back zip. I just stitched it all together. Next time I will put the back facing on the fold so that there is less bulk. I might also be able to put the back bodice and skirt on the fold to eliminate the centre seam all together. There is a little shaping in this seam but with a stretch fabric eliminating a little shaping should be fine.
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| Centre back seam - no zip! |
I also used twill tape in the shoulders to make sure the dress maintained support and structure. I used bonding tape on the hems on the bottom and sleeves to give a nice crisp finish. There is still some puckering that I am not completely happy with. I will need to work on that some more.
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| Inside shot of the twill tape |
I cut this dress out last weekend and just as I had finished it I flicked on the TV for a bit of the news and saw Kate Middleton wearing this. It’s not completely the same but there is something about the high neck red dress. I couldn’t resist styling it with my new favourite red beret! A royal red dress or what?
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| No princess fantasies here – I promise. I think technically she was copying me. |
I cut something else out of this red ponte from a pattern that is also not intended for a knit. I made some pattern adjustments so it will be interesting to see how it comes together. I might as well sew it up while everything is threaded in red. I guess those curtains will just have to wait just a little longer…
