I really hope you’ve been enjoying the weekly posts! It’s been a really consistent run these past few months, and I’m going to try to keep it up!
I hadn’t sewn anything new in a little while, but an easy project always gets me going when I’m feeling stuck. This pretty patterned cotton jersey has been hanging around my studio for the better part of a year, folded alongside its intended pattern waiting to be turned into a dress.
The pattern (Simplicity 1358) was incredibly simple: a front, back, and 3 bands for the neck and arm holes. I didn’t even end up using the arm holes and simply hemmed the openings. The pattern includes dresses of three different lengths: long, short, and high-low. I chose the long, but didn’t cut it to full length because I’m so short! The original pattern flares a bit more as well, but I didn’t have the fabric width for the full skirt, so I tapered it a few inches narrower and added a side-slit so that my gate would not be impacted. I don’t think there’s any significant visual difference because a wider skirt would just fold back on itself more. Most of the dress I cut as a size small, but the waist I took into an extra-small. Ah, the joy of stretch fabric.
The chosen two-way stretch jersey stretches on the horizontal, not the vertical, making it extremely comfortable to wear, but still structured and supportive. It is a fairly heavy weight, forgiving, and opaque. Every seam was done on the serger, and the bottom hem and sleeve holes turned under again to create a rolled-hem look.
The neck opening is finished with a separate band as directed. It was a real pain stretching and aligning the smaller band to the larger opening. I feel this is a flaw in the pattern which is supposed to be for beginners, but whatever, it’s behind me. I made a few modifications to the width of the band because the provided one was wider than I thought appropriate and stood up in a funny way. I think I fixed it though; now everything is nice and smooth.
I did not add pockets to this dress, which I’m sure I’ll regret later when I can’t easily carry my phone around the house with me, but I didn’t want to interrupt the very soft line. I am very excited to wear this dress around the house this summer and bask in its extreme buttery, stretchy comfort and simplicity.
