Autumnal Cheer

photo courtesy
of Kimberleys

This dress sat as a ufo on my sewing table for more than a week.  Over the weekend, ironically, as the kids splashed around in the pool in Indian summer temperatures, I got motivated to whip it up.  The fabric is a beautiful cotton jersey with the softest cuddliest feel to it and guess what, it didn't come from the op shop!  It must have some polyester to it as well because as I discovered, it could not be hot ironed.  I was inspired to make a dress out of the fabric, by the dress at right, which is by Marilyn Seyb.  I love the large floral design. 



I chose Simplicity 3503 as the pattern.  This is a pattern I had used before to make a maxi dress and really liked the fit.  I hoped the sleeved version would look just as good.  The dress ended up going together super quickly but I did end up unpicking and making some changes.

Whether it was the fabric I chose, I am not sure, but I had to take the yoke in by 2cm on each side to avoid the dress looking sack like.  This completed, I still wasn't happy and realised that the width in the sleeves did not look right on me plus I wanted to be able to wear a cardigan over the top in the winter months.   I narrowed the sleeves at the wrist by 10cm on the front and 10cm on the back, taking a full 20cm out of the width of the sleeve at the hem.

To make sure the neck yoke looked neat, I carefully hand stitched it down and then top stitched it with grey thread.  The wrists, I folded over double and top stitched to ensure a neat finish.   This may be a little knit dress, but one thing I learnt as a child learning to embroider, was that the back of your project should be as tidy as the front and I endeavour to make sure that all of my projects are as neat on the inside as possible. 

All in all, I am really pleased with the finished product.  It certainly fits the 'more colour in my wardrobe' criteria and given the colour would be equally at home with bare legs and sandals as it would with a cardigan, tights and boots....the perfect transeasonal garment, I think.