Sunday 4 December 2016

Heather - the cosiest winter dress ever?

I love wearing jeans, but sometimes it's nice to pull on a casual dress and tights. Somehow it feels a bit more dressed up, but for very little effort - win. When I saw the new Heather Dress pattern from Sew Over It, it fitted the bill perfectly. 

This is a PDF only pattern, which is really annoying. As I've said before, I would happily pay a couple of extra pounds so that I don't have to spend an entire afternoon cutting the pattern out and sticking together with sellotape. However, I understand why the indie pattern houses release patterns like this and it does at least mean you get the pattern straight after buying it. 

For my first attempt at the Heather Dress, I used an organic cotton interlock knit bought from Maud's fabric finds at the Handmade Fair. It is much more sturdy than a lot of knit fabrics and was lovely to see with. The best thing about sewing with stretch fabrics is being able to sew most of it on the overlocker which saves a huge amount of time. I was feeling lazy/ impatient when I made this and used a zig zag stitch rather than a twin stretch needle for the hems and to finish the neckline because I couldn't be bothered to sew up my machine for the twin needle. I think it looks fine, although the extra effort would probably have given a more professional finish. I went for the size 10 as usual in Sew Over It patterns and while it fitted fine around the shoulders and arms, it was too big in the body. I haven't altered it yet, but will take a couple of cms off the sides. 

In this picture I am gathering the dress together at the back with my hand, so it looks like it fits better than it actually does:

 

I also bought some striped French Terry from the Sew Over It website to make another Heather Dress. I spent ages trying to pattern match the stripes on the side panels with the front and back panels and failed miserably. I think I can just about get away with it, so I'm still planning to wear this out and about. My Mum has just made a version of this dress in striped fabric as well and she made the stripes on the side panels vertical, thus eliminating the challenge of pattern matching- wish I'd thought of that! I learnt my lesson on the fit and took a much bigger seam allowance down the sides and am happier with the fit. It is more fitted without being too tight, and fabric is so warm and comfortable, I'll be wearing this loads:

 
 

I've now received my Coverpro machine (although not had time to play with it yet) - this should make it even easier to sew projects like this. 

3 comments:

  1. Thank you for the info about fit. I have this pattern and hope to make.it soon. You look great. I am also a beginner- I have been sewing for 2 years. I will be watching this space to see what you so next!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for the info about fit. I have this pattern and hope to make.it soon. You look great. I am also a beginner- I have been sewing for 2 years. I will be watching this space to see what you so next!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Vertical stripes would be interesting, although the stretch would run the wrong way, so it might be a bit tighter or pull down a bit. I suppose it depends how much stretch you're working with. Stripes on a 45 degree angle might work too.

    ReplyDelete