Trillium in jersey

Today, I have another knitification project. I made a Trillium, which is designed for woven fabrics, in jersey. The Trillium is a dress or tunic with a color blocked bodice from Petite Stitchery and co which is part of One Thimble issue 14*. Besides making some adjustments to make it suitable for knits, I also adjusted the skirt length, originally it is a maxi dress, but I went for knee length.

*******************************************************************

Ik houd van opties en variaties en zie vaak jurken voor geweven stoffen die ik liever in tricot zou maken. Zo ook de Trillium van Petite Stitchery and co. Her is een patroon voor jurk of tuniek die onderdeel was van One Thimble 14*. Ik ben helemaal weg van de color block in het lijfje, maar naai nou eenmaal liever tricot dan katoen. Naast een paar aanpassingen in verband met de rekbaarheid van de stof, korte ik ook de rok in. Het is eigenlijk een patroon voor een maxi jurk, maar ik maakte hem in knielengte.

One of the big advantages of knit dresses is that they do not require closings. I have no fear of sewing zippers/button holes (although today I read that I am actually incorrectly using my blind zipper foot....), but not using a zipper/buttons saves the cost of the zipper /buttons, saves the time of sewing the zipper/button holes and it saves my kids dressing time.  The original Trillium has a front button closure, which is one of the most kid friendly closures, but I also just love hacking patterns.

*******************************************************************

Een van de grote voordelen aan tricot is het feit dat je sluitingen achterwege kan laten. Ik heb ondertussen geen angst meer voor knopen of ritsen (hoewel ik er vandaag achterkwam dat ik dus al jaren mijn ritsvoet achterstevoren gebruik), maar als je geen sluiting gebruikt, dan bespaar je de kosten van de rits of knopen, bespaar je de naaitijd van rits inzetten op knoopsgaten maken en de kids besparen tijd tijdens het aankleden. De originele Trillium heeft een knoopssluiting aan de voorkant, de meest kindvriendelijke sluiting, dus het laatste voordeel maakt weinig verschil, maar ik vind het natuurlijk ook gewoon leuk om zaken aan te passen.

This time I did not size down (which is often necessary with knits), I used the back of the bodice in the size that I would have chosen for a woven dress based on the measurement table and adjusted the front to have the same width as the back. I kept the original width of the button placket, but I only cut one layer. Only the outer front is color blocked, the front lining is a all in one piece.

*******************************************************************

De pasvorm van de Trillium is behoorlijk smal, dus ik knipte gewoon haar eigen maat. Ik maakte het voorpand even breed als het achterpand en behield de breedte van het knopenpadje (waar ik geen knopen op zette). De color block is nu enkel op de buitenzijde, de binnenkant is gevoerd met een voorkant uit één stuk.

I realized you can not see the fabric from the skirt from close by, but it has unicorns on it, and my daughter picked it herself in the fabric store and she has been asking for a dress from it ever since. I feared that a dress from the unicorn fabric alone would be too pj like, so I used uni colors in the bodice. I found a matching combination uni color fabrics in my stash. All these fabrics, including the unicorns are from Textielstad.

*******************************************************************

Ik realiseerde me te laat dat je de stof van de rok niet echt goed kan zien op deze foto's. Het is eenhoorn stof die dochterlief zelf uitkoos en sindsdien vroeg ze met regelmaat waar haar jurk bleef. Ik vreesde dat een jurk uit enkel eenhoornstof iets te veel van het goede zou worden, dus combineerde ik het met een color block uit effen stoffen. Mijn voorraad bevatte stoffen die een uitermate goede match vormde met de kleuren uit de stof. Alle stoffen, inclusief de eenhoorn komen van Textielstad.

I have mentioned before that I am trying but mostly failing in my attempts to use props. This unicorn seemed like a match made in heaven, but finding the optimal way to use it was a challenge. Riding the unicorn obviously did not turn out to be a winner pose, just dropping it on the floor actually turned out to give best effect.

*******************************************************************

Ik schreef al eerder dat ik een poging doe tot foto's met accessoires, maar dat het tot nu toe nog niet echt succesvol is. Dit beest leek echt voor deze shoot gemaakt, niet verrassend waarschijnlijk dat dit speelgoed door dezelfde dame in huis werd gehaald. Een juiste pose vinden bleek echter nog lastig, erop zitten was geen succes, op de grond voor de voeten leek dan nog het best te werken.

I realized that this is actually my fifth project from One Thimble 14*, I also made a Loli, an Amuse, a Lala mash and the Thyme vest. 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). If you buy anything through my affiliate links (*), I get a small commission (the price stays the same for you), I am very grateful for everything that feeds my fabric addiction.

*******************************************************************

I realiseerde me dat dit al het vijfde project is uit One Thimble 14*, ik maakte al een Loli, een Amuse, een Lala mash en Thyme vest. Ik vind het altijd super leuk om reacties te lezen op mijn creaties. In deze post zitten enkele affiliate linken, aangeven met een *. Mocht je het patroon aankopen doordat je in de shop kwam via een link van mij, dan krijg ik een kleine commissie. Het patroon wordt niet duurder voor jou, maar mijn stoffenkast is er wel heel blij mee. 

Knot dress in knit

This month's Project Run and Play challenge is the free knot dress pattern from Jess of Me sew crazy! It is a great dress and gives an instant summer feel. Although the pattern is great by itself I of course had to put my own stamp on it.

In the last weeks I have been thinking a lot about my signature style, or better say the lack of one. In the end, it was my fabric stash that told me what my signature style is: knit. Knits in colorful prints, I have so many different ones just laying on the shelves. Like I wrote a few times already I prefer skipping ironing (both of clean clothes and during sewing) and clothes that can be worn immediately after being washed are my favorites. Knits make perfect children garments, kids can move in them easily and the stretchiness also gives a bit more growth room (although my kids only seem to grow length wise, in which knit is not much of an advantage over woven). So for this months dress I used my knitification skills, and flipped the woven dress to a knit knot dress.

After some pattern measuring it turned out that I needed a 2T size for my seven year old, another advantage of knitification, your woven patterns can be used much longer. I lengthened the bodice to the normal waist length.

I used one yard of a Birch knit from my stash. Birch knit is amazingly smooth and relatively thick. One of the nice features of the original knot dress is the contrasting color of the lining that sometimes shows. The back of the fabric is perfectly white (there is a small bit of see through) and I thought this could create a great contrasting effect as well. Knit doesn't fray and due to the low level of vertical stretch Birch knit does not really curl. Besides a securing stitch on 5 mm from the side I did not finish my seams. I therefore had to cut of the seam allowances from the pattern pieces of the straps and neckline.

I really like the knot on the back of the original design because it means that you do not have to install a zipper. Still, I took out the knot on the back, I feared that it would make sitting a bit comfortable (my eldest is sitting in many different positions on the chair and a few of them were bound to be extra uncomfortable in case of a the back knot).  Due to the fact that the dress is in knit, the knot is not necessary. The knot normally is needed to create some space to comfortably put on the dress. Although my daughter could tie the shoulder knots, she could not have tied the back knot by herself anyway. All in all the back knot had to go.  I cut of the middle seam allowance of the back piece and cut is as one whole with a round hole. I strengthened the hole with the same stabilizing stitching. The photo is too blurry but you get the point.

I put in pockets, every dress should have pockets. To maximize contrast I put in the pockets inside out, having the white back of the fabric "showing".

The bottom hem I did not finish at all, I did not wanted to put a stabilizing stitching because I know my daughter would tear through them immediately (those knees...).

I usually cut my fabric very economically but due to the fact I only had one yard (which I bought at Fabricworm together with the fabric for this dress) I had to cut even more carefully. I opted for a gathered skirt like the original knot dress. The width of the skirt simply were the parts that remained after cutting the bodice parts. They were a bit over twice the width of the bodice, instead of the usual three to four times (and the pieces were not even both the same length). The knots at the bottom of the dress give a little extra width, still creating a very nice full skirt.

I made a matching hairband from two relatively large leftovers, what remained were truly scraps.

As you might have noticed I am trying to step up my photographer skills, from this shoot I learned once and for all that full sun light is not the way to go, overexposure is not my friend. I already knew that of course but let my daughter's comfort (sun meant warmth in this case) win over nicely shaded pictures. With nicer weather approaching I hope to face this dilemma less often in the coming months.

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).