Mixed Knits

 I had a little bit of flocked swiss dot fabric left from this, bits'n'pieces left over from this shirt and tights, the remnant of floral knit from the free bin at the craft thrift store, and more of the fabric than I'd need for the intended project, so I could use a bit of it here, from the same visit to the craft thrift store, and I put them all together to make a silly dress.

The pattern is an amalgamation: bodice is New Look 6068, Sleeves are McCall's 5675, and the skirt is Simplicity 5903.  All the involved pieces are modified, of course.

New Look 6068 is supposed to use a facing for the scoop neck views, but I have only ever applied ribbing to finish that edge.

I also added a (hasty) zipper to the (optional) center back seam, because I wasn't sure if the waist seam could handle being stretched while being pulled over.

Especially since I was determined to double stitch the waist seam, so even less stretch would be possible.

I also double stitched around the neckband ribbing and the sleeves, to keep the seam allowances hidden inside.

I didn't want to change the serger thread, so I sewed the sleeves with french seams and set them into the armscyes in the round.

I replaced the pattern's buttoned cuffs with more rib knit.  I gathered the sleeve ends slightly, then stretched the cuffs to fit while sewing.  Still didn't want to change serger thread, so I stitched again within the seam allowance and trimmed close to that.

Don't look close, it'll be fine.

Looking close at the hem, though, would just cause eye strain, because the blind hem stitching completely disappeared.

The incredibly synthetic fabric here pressed beautifully--highest iron setting, and with lots of steam, nothing melted, but it heat formed into one of the sharpest pure synthetic hems I can ever remember making.

I think this textured double knit is funny, because it's obviously intended to look like a nice, randomly slubby wool. But. It's a double knit, so there's nothing random about it.

I'm sure it only looks like a texture fill in a flat hanging photo like this...

A lot of my formative sewing projects in the late 90s and early 2000s were dresses that I'd probably never have the opportunity to wear, and this project feels like a throwback to those.