Floral Knit Dress

I have actively decided to sew a few simple things for a while, and all the better if they're items I'll wear as the weather cools, like the tights in the previous post.

Next to that gray fabric in the fabric stash, and purchased on the same visit to the craft thrift store, was a probably early 1990s English chintz print cotton interlock knit.

I have Simplicity 8072, an easy knit dress pattern from 1998

which is a few years later than the era of the knit print, but I wasn't aiming for historical accuracy, so here we are

 

The first thing I did was mark a new hemline, 6"/15cm shorter than the pattern's short views.  The back of the pattern says the short view, in size 14, is 40½"/103cm; that's way longer on me than the mid-knee length in the illustrations. (The long views would be about ankle-length on me.)  The amount I shortened it makes it noticeably shorter than the modest mid-knee intent of the pattern, but that length--and fabric saving--is fine with me.

I cut the upper bodice at size 12 and swooped past size 14 at the waist to 16 at the hips.

I thought of omitting the button placket, but went ahead and made it.  As usual, I love the way faux horn buttons blend with everything.

I need to re-sew that third button a bit higher, I think. 

And the pattern didn't ask for that top stitching, but...it's me, so there's top stitching.

The sleeve cap fits fairly smoothly into the armscye--there could be a bit less ease, but there wasn't so much that it was a struggle to make smooth, and it didn't need to be ironed to sit flat, so it gets a passing grade from me.

   

 

  I sewed twice for a fake coverstitch look on the sleeve cuffs, but just once for the hem.

   

 

 I did not serge the edges of the sleeves before hemming them, mainly because I didn't think about it.  The lower edge of the skirt was cut a bit rough, so I serged that just to tidy it up before hemming.  All of the serging in this project was done purely for aesthetics.  I didn't any construction on the serger because I think it would have gone badly around the placket, and I still don't trust my serger not to break the left needle when I have that installed.  Good thread, quality fabric, and a ballpoint needle make sewing knits on a lockstitch machine go smoothly.

  

I was able to avoid the pattern repeating obviously on each side of the front seam by cutting it close to the lengthwise fold--the repeat is still there, because this print is only a single element.  Repeats are unavoidable.  Stuff on the back ended up a little closer together, but not in a "you could have pattern matched that if you had made the effort" way, so I'm not too upset.

   

 I have more of this fabric!  Not sure if I'll try to use it all up now, since knit stuff is generally a breeze to sew, or put it away for a while, since it'll definitely fit back in the stash.