A successful Frankendress

This dress came after much contemplation about which pattern I could use for a heavily patterned jersey.

I didn’t want a pattern with too many darts or princess seams and I was struggling to find the right pattern in my stash but I also wasn’t sure enough of what I wanted to look for a new one. So I decided to take my old faithful New Look 6483 one hour top pattern,  which I use all the time.  I cut view C,  which has an high neck and sleeves,  which I made slightly longer. I measured an inch below the waist line marked on the patterned and cut along that.

Next I took New Look 6723 which I have made previously here and used the skirt pieces for the bottom half of the dress. With it being a jersey I knew I wasn’t going to insert a zip so I cut both pieces on the fold, being careful to try and keep the pattern vertical throughout.

The Plan

I made the top half up as usual but tried my hand at my first jersey neckline, which I am rather pleased with.

I then used Suzie,  my dressmaker dummy,  to play around with fitting the skirt. The original pattern uses gathers but I thought that would go against the pattern of the fabric, so I pinned some pleats either side of the centre line at the front and the back,  slept on it and then went for it. It was so great to have the dressmaking dummy to do this on.

I think it gives it shape without spoiling the pattern. I tried to keep the line of the ‘Trellis’ going throughout and have managed it quite well I feel. The fabric doesn’t have a great deal of stretch so it was quite easy to work with.

I think this dress really shows how I have improved because the last frankendress I did was pretty unsuccessful and not very well pattern matched at all. I think I’m finally getting a feel for how fabrics should look when sewn. Hooray!

I have had this hung for a few months, waiting for spring and so last weekend I cracked it out for the Sewing for Pleasure show which I won tickets too! I’ve blogged about my haul here if you want to see some lovely fabrics!

I teamed it with tights (it’s not that much like spring yet) my tan waist belt and Brogues and a black cardi. I loved the show and I think it’s the perfect back drop for my dress!