Sunday 21 March 2010

Me-Made-March: Day 18 and a New Warm Thing!

Day 18, note the barely concealed excitement on my face caused by the fact that I'm WEARING A NEW WARM THING!:


Me-made jeggings, jersey dress, vest and pants. Neither my navy ruffle front jumper OR Saint cardigan in sight!

Actually, I have to admit it is finally starting to get warmer. But it's still far from summer top weather, so I thought I'd finally get round to bustin' the grey and black knit fabric that's been in my stash since the January sales. I made this jersey dress based predominantly on the pattern I used for my comfy dress, which in turn was based on the pattern in Sew U: Home Stretch.


I initially had vague plans for creating something more avant garde from this fabric, but I came up against three barriers, #1: I only had one metre of this fabric, #2: I had no avant garde ideas, and finally #3: I'm just not that stylistically avant garde. But the outcome is very wearable, and when you are relying on self-made garments alone for a given time, wearability is the best I can hope for!
At first, I tried to make more poofy sleeves, by slash-and-flaring the sleeve heads of the exisiting poofy sleeve pattern. But I didn't do it right and they looked strange and more than a little Rhianna. In hindsight I should have added a shitload more volume to the sleeve head and done some nifty poof-control technique like Karin did here. However I didn't, and to be fair I wouldn't have had enough fabric to do so anyhow, so I unpicked the sleeve heads and trimmed away the offending excess and got the poof under control.


I decided a scooped neckline would be flattering, and instead of attempting some sort of self-binding, I used some FOE (fold over elastic) which has got to be the quickest and easiest method of finishing necklines, whilst also creating a clean finish. All in all I'm very happy with the outcome. It may get taken in a little at the waist, particularly when it warms up enough to not need to wear a vest underneath, but the fabric isn't as stretchy as you may think so that may create problems getting it on and off. I'll ruminate on that one.

11 comments:

Stephanie said...

Love the dress. It's really cute!

Digs said...

What an utterly lovely fabric, a great & stylish tunic dress, overall a very flattering look. I wouldn't change a thing.

naughty little pony said...

That looks so great. I continue to be continually impressed by all your amazing me-made-march garments!

Owl Loves Panda said...

Wow it's so funky!

Fawn and Flower said...

No way, the sleeves are perfect. It's hard to make puffy sleeves with jersey! I've only done it once and I ironed some interfacing into them, which was a mess. I like the little scoop neck :)

Gail said...

I show my daughters your blog to encourage them to sew for themselves. My youngest (aged 14) thinks that you are a style goddess! She's right you know.

Zoe said...

Oh my peops! Thanks so much! And Gail, I am truly flattered! If I am able to encourage anyone to sew then I'm extremely happy xxx

Veronica said...

You LOVE FOE! And I can see why, cause I love it too having used it for my UNDIES.

Great one, it's avant garde enough for me, with the sleeves and pattern of the fabric. GREAT!

Minnado said...

Lovely dress - glad you are warm again

K.Line said...

I've made this dress and I love it. The sleeves are so chic and feminine, but the line of the garment is clean. Very nice in this fabric!

sanjeet said...

overall a very flattering look. I wouldn't change a thing.
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