Way Back.....

Way back in late June, I decided to copy a favourite dress with a cross over bodice/empire waist.  I used plastic tablecloth on a roll to copy an outline of the dress onto.  I had this lightweight knit (Value Village find), and cut out the bodice and basted it together.  Well, I don't know what happened.  Even though I added extra to the bust, it was way too low cut!  I decided to scrap it right away and cut a new, scoop neck bodice.  I basted the bodice together, and saw I needed some changes, and altered the pattern, but I was confused.  I had to add a bit to the bust width, but take out some in the upper chest width, but somehow, it resulted in basically no change to how it fit!  LOL.

I was working with a bit of a deadline--we were heading to Indiana (check my other blog), and I wanted to take it.  So I was rushing a bit.  I decided after basting together, that the skirt front was too narrow for my comfort.  So, I cut another piece to go in the middle.  However, somehow (uh, because I made my pattern without seam allowances and writing "add S.A"  wasn't enough to clue me in), I made the center piece about 2" too short.  I also decided the dress was a tad dull.  I don't have a huge stash of knit fabrics, but I have been collecting old clothes to re-furbish/use as fabric.  I had a perfectly good black turtleneck sweater that was about the same weight.  It felt sinful to slice off some strips from the bottom, but it was the perfect width!

 I turned the armband and neckband edges in and did a double needle topstitching.  However, it didn't work as well as on the bathing suits.  It didn't survive very long.  More on that later.

It was quite comfy, I wore it down to Indianapolis for over 12 hours.  However, I found myself sweating, despite having the air conditioning on in the truck!
After I wore it again, I decided to take the sides in a little, and use my new serger to redo the the bottom hem, and the armholes.  I wasn't ready for that!  The bottom went okay, but there were some things I just didn't know about doing the armholes (clearing the stitch fingers, doing a complete "circle", going over the shoulder seams was rough...).  I really wasn't happy with the armholes.  For the neck, I decided to follow a tutorial I had just found at ikatbag (I made the dress in the tutorial too!).  I had seen other tutorials, but they result in a raw edge on the inside.  This tutorial treats the binding like bias binding.  However, I did have some difficulty with going around the curves.  The end result was okay, although there is some wrinkling on one strap.

But after wearing it again, by the end of the day, the underarms had stretched!  From my body heat?

Hard to get a good picture, but you can see it sticking out.  I can't just take the seams in again; the back is a good width, and it's mainly the front parts that went wild.  And if I take the fronts in again, will it just stretch again?
It's a nice enough dress, the upper bodice needs the straps angled inwards a bit more, but the rest is good.  I started another dress but man, it's giving me a tough time!