Knitted dresses

This dress (NYFW 2012 spring Oscar de la Renta show) makes me want to pick up knitting and crocheting again! It reminds me of all the end of sixties and seventies books of my grandma with fabulous knitted and crocheted dresses which I never attempted to make myself... This dress has everything I usually like in a dress:
- fitted bodice
- short sleeves
- dropped waist
- flared skirt

 

Skirt - finishing the waistband and the hem

I'm planning to finish the skirt today!
I didn't make a muslin for the skirt because I thought that fitting problems could easily be solved here. The fit wasn't great here, it was okay on the hips but way to big above that:

So I decided to place darts both in the front and the back. The fit is already better with the back darts here:


I used the leftover fabric from my Butterfly garden dress for the facing. I love the contrasting colours! The zipper isn't inserted yet:


Understitching on the inside:


I stitched the upper part and the sides of the facing (right side on the right side of the skirt) and then turned it back. Now I have to topstitch on the right side:


The inside after the topstitching:


Since I have an old sewing machine there is no buttonhole making program on it. I had to experiment a bit to get it right by using zigzag stitch. The try-out buttonholes are not so pretty:



And here they are! They aren't perfect, but work just fine! I marked the place of the buttonholes with a contrasting colored thread first.

   



Since the facing of the waistband is bright colored I decided to use a contrasting colored bias band on the hem. The combination of dark green - pink fascinates me somehow!

(I used plain zigzag stitch to finish the other seams. Just because the fabric is too thick and didn't want to add more stiffness.)

Progress on skirt

I managed to cut the skirt pieces from the piece of fabric that was still uncut. The pockets are cut out of the back pant pieces. Because of the fabric (vertical ribs) I had to change the grainline on the pocket pattern pieces. I cut them with vertical grainlines instead of horizontal ones. The vertical lines of the fabric now matches at the side seams.
I've traced the pattern pieces without seam allowances (this counts for every European pattern) but since I find really, really easy to work with US patterns I added 1.5 cm (5/8 inch) all around.

The pockets:




Front:


Back:


The pockets are sewn on the skirt layer, so I marked the line and pressed the seam allowance on the pockets to the wrong side before attaching them:



The result:

Inspirational

- Linen and lace... A lot of ideas and inspiration. Beautiful creations and a lots of pics!Check out this link!

- And how about the new Colette patterns? I definitely have to buy the Clover pants and Jasmine blouse patterns!

Next up... a skirt

I had this idea of making a fall version of the Ceylon dress out of a beautiful dark green rib fabric I had. Unfortunately, I seem to have cut up the fabric about 9 years ago and ended up with a piece of 1.30 meters and two hopeless UFO's. At the end of the day, no way I can manage to make a dress out of the bits and pieces. But what I can make is a skirt! I have to puzzle a bit to get all the pieces out of the fabric.
I don't really have skirts for fall and winter so this seems to be a good opportunity to work on some separates!

UFO nr.1 some kind of 3/4 trousers (this is really a 'what was I thinking' moment...)


UFO nr.2 a really mini skirt (well, back then it seemed long enough...)


After unpicking the seams (well I did a good job on finishing those pleats!) I'm left with quite a big piece of fabric, which I think I can use for the pockets:


And this is the plan, from a Knipmode magazine:


I think I need to make the skirt less full, but otherwise I can manage it.

The finished Ceylon dress!

Fabric: linen-cotton mix
Pattern: Colette patterns Ceylon dress
Time to complete: well, quite a few hours, mainly due to making the fabric covered buttons, the bound buttonholes and the seam finishing.

I love the vintage feel of this dress!
It goes together really easy, even if there are quite a few pattern pieces. I've cut size 2. The fit is great, the dropped waist is really flattering. I shortened the hem by 2.5 cm and finished it with lace and added an invisible zipper to the side seam.

Details on the Ceylon dress