A salvaged dress

Finch fabrics just released their first fabric line. All the fabrics are a good quality border printed jersey. I was intrigued and ordered three different ones (at stoffenelf). I received the fabrics yesterday afternoon and immediately turned one into a dress. I bought this fabric with the intention of making our smallest girl a shirt, so I ordered one panel of 33 centimeter wide (160 centimeter long). When the fabric arrived plans changed, and I turned it into a dress for my middle daughter. The title of this post refers to the fact that when I finished the dress yesterday evening, the fit was off. I had put in pockets and because of the shape of the dress they gaped open and the dress was a bit too short. After a good night of sleep, I sat back behind my serger and now things are much better.

I only had a 33 centimeter wide panel so I had very few scraps. Only a few strips with a  2 centimeter (maximum) width. I cut the lining and pockets from a different uni colored jersey. I used the free Penny play suit pattern again. I love the shape of the bodice. I simply lengthened the pattern with an extremely small amount of flare (the maximum my 33 centimeter wide panel allowed) and put a ruffle at the bottom. The direction of the fabric in the ruffle is different from the bodice. I cut the flower part vertically in two to make two strips of 16 centimeter wide. The fact that the direction of the fabric is different doesn't matter, because stretch and recovery are great.

I somehow wanted the girls on my daughters chest and not at the bottom of the dress. Now, looking at the finished dress, I do not think it is much better than the way the fabrics was originally designed. I might even have liked it better with the girls at the bottom. The girls are printed in such a way that one of my sides had three whole girls and one had two whole girls and two half ones. The two half girls nicely disappeared in the seam so the back just has two girls.

Like I mentioned at the beginning, the first version of this dress had pockets. When my girl put the dress on it looked strange. Even if I pushed the pockets totally to the front they still created a thicker part around her hips and the pockets gaped open. The dress just looked too small. This morning, I used the seam ripper, took the pockets off and now the fit at her waist is perfect. Yesterday evening I feared the dress was becoming a bit too long so I put a relatively wide seam in the bottom. This morning I also removed my twin needle stitches and added a wavy rolled hem to salvage all length. The jersey easily overstretched on my sewing machine, so I thoroughly steamed the seam yesterday. The fabric will need a wash for the stitches and hem line to disappear totally.

I love to hear what you think of my creations. Feel free to leave a comment in the language you prefer (although Google translate might have to assist me if you choose something different than English, German, Dutch or Hungarian).