Dress? Top? Madness?

This project was the result of a product review I did for Minerva Crafts. I got this thick padded jersey and went all experimental on it! I decided to try to make a tight sitting dress with this, so I started by using a pattern for the neckline, shoulder seams and armholes (that was New Look 6808, beautiful pattern by the way!) and legging it from there on.



I self drafted the detail on the chest, went through my stash hoping to find some jersey to use as binding for the edges, didn't find a color I wanted to use, but found a piece of velveteen of an acceptable color instead (why not? Let’s try).

The sewing process went like this:

-        - Create the dress front and upper yoke (for the chest slit detail) and bind the chest edges with velveteen.

Was the slit a good idea? No!

It gaped more than I wanted to and I was very uncomfortable with it. I closed it with some lacy crochet before I wore it out in public (last picture).

-        - Baste them together.

-        - Stitch shoulder seams and bind the neckline.

-        - Stitching some velveteen for effect close to shoulder seams.

-        - Attaching the sleeves (on the flat).

Then I went crazy! I put the dress inside out over my head and just pinned the sides and sleeve seams around my body, somehow managed to get out of it and stitched as pinned in one continuous line on each side down to the knee, then finished from the knee down and the hem, as well as sleeve hems. The dress was now “technically” done.

Was that way of doing it a good idea? Again No! As expected the two sides weren’t even around the hips and down, I also sewed too wide there so it looked like I have HUGE hips (mine are wide, but this looked enormous!), I also ended up with the back wider than the front below the knees so the slits that were planned from the knee down were slightly off making the bottom of the front piece basically stand straight like a sheet of paper 😂. And in case you’re still reading and not rolling on the floor laughing, I pinned the sleeves a bit too tight.

Basically I would’ve achieved far better results if I’d have drafted my body measurements on some tracing paper first to get thing nice and even instead of sewing straight on.

So after some trying, failing and frustration I decided to do this top with long front and back, I want to say tunic but it's not that either, I don't really know what to call it although the french word "chasuble" comes to mind...

Am I happy with it? Not really. But I will wear it a bit and see what I can do with it later. Maybe cut it up and make my nephew a jacket or something, time will show. Nevertheless, it was fun to try!

See my review for Minerva here. And if you're interested in my fabric shop project, remember to follow my page on Facebook: Cotton Candy - by Cotton Al-Hayek and on Instagram: cottoncandy.no

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Pattern: A bit of New Look 6808 and a lot of self drafting and madness.
Fabric: Minerva Crafts
Photos taken on my balcony in Asker, Norway