Two Dresses

We're in Reno this week, and I took the opportunity to stop by Mills End to get some heavier knit fabric for a dress. I'd been wanting to make a form fitting dress with tall neck for a while.  Don't know what possessed me, since I knew well I probably wouldn't wear it much as I'd be too self-conscious to wear close fitting clothes. But I really wanted to make one, in knit.

I found a lovely coral color fabric, and bought 3 yards of it.

I made the first dress and drafted pattern based on my measurements.  I did end up re-sew the seams on the side to make it very fitting. Why not, I figured. I did raglan style sleeves.  I used my wonderful serger for all seams, and sewing machine for darts. It turned out fitting well with slight negative ease. I really like it even though I kinda suspect it's gonna sit in the closet unworn for a while.  And yes, I sucked in the tummy for the pictures.

With enough yardage left to make another dress.  I decided to make one that I may actually be not too self-conscious to wear.  And to be opposite of the first one, the second dress was aimed to be baggy with set in sleeves. I also added pockets, and lengthen the neck a bit taller.  Yes, I love this neckline very much.  It's one frequent recurring neck in my designs. After drafting the pattern, I cut the pieces, the pockets were improvised after cutting.  Not really the best sewing job on the pockests but the dress is baggy enough to not draw too much attention to all the imperfections.

One tip I learned recently was to sew set-in sleeves in flat.  Meaning, sewing front to back at shoulder seams first, then sew the sleeves from the shoulder to the underarm on front and back separately.  Finally, join front to back by sewing from sleeve cuff to underarm, then from underarm to hem.  This is such a great tip that makes sewing set-in sleeves a breeze.  It's the way garment industry sew, and I don't know why regular sewing books and patterns don't teach it this way.  It's always such a daunting task to sew the sleeves on to the body when the side-seams are already sewn together.

I think dress looks kinda mod.  I modeled it with tights, I'd imagined wearing it with leggings would be more suitable for me, as the dress length was unusually short for my style due to the yardage left after first dress. However, if it was too much much longer, it would probably look more like a maternity dress than a mod dress.

Both dresses came together in one day.  I'm really happy that I finally got some sewing going for the summer.