KS 3703 + 3561: The throw it on and go dress

The older I get, the more I love wearing dresses. Not only for work, but on the weekends as well. But, my big caveat is I like my dresses comfy, but still cute. For some reason, this seems to be difficult to find in stores. Yay for sewing! ;)

I loved the little racerback dresses I made last summer from KS 3703 so much and wore them to death. I wanted something for the fall/winter that had the same basic shape since it was so flattering for my pear-shaped hips, but that had a plain scoop neck and long sleeves so that I wouldn't freeze in my icebox of an office. Oh, and it had to look cute with boots. Quite the list, eh? I'd like to say that I used a bunch of fancy pattern skills to combine KS 3703 (the bodice) with KS 3561 (for the neckline and sleeves), but the truth is that I totally winged it and somehow wound up so very happy with the result.

The pattern pieces that I wound up with consisted of a fitted scoopneck dress with an a-line skirt and long sleeves. I knew that I wanted to make this out of relatively thin jersery knit fabrics, so I also added a full lining, using the dress pieces. Each shell was sewn together separately and then they were attached at the neckline, right sides together with clear elastic sewn in to provide stabilization. The sleeves were then added to the dress. I left the jersey lining unhemmed, but cut short enough to not show at the bottom and hemmed the sleeves/outside layer of the dress with a twin needle.

My inital test dress (which has since been packed away in the "Yeah, this isn't fitting until after baby" box) was a smidge too short and too tight. I mean, it fit, but it needed a little tweaking to be perfect. I adjusted my already crazy frankenpattern accordingly and cut out the next version in some Missoni look alike fabric that I grabbed from Michael Levine. I lined the dress in a nice, beefy bamboo jersey, which not only added warmth, but also smoothed everything out. It is also so comfortable against the skin - an extra bonus. Sure, I paid more for the lining fabric than the fashion fabric, but in my opinion, it was totally worth it.

To finish off the look, I made an infiniti scarf in some teal jersey using the instructions that came with the Hot Patterns Uptown/Downtown dress. After I finished this one in December, I have since worn it no less than a dozen times. I love the colors, I love the style and I especially love the fit. Oh, and the best part - almost 22 weeks pregnant and it still fits pretty well. Oh sure, it's getting shorter as the bump gets bigger, but it's nice that I'm still able to wear it since our weather is showing no signs of wanting to warm up any time soon.

And a comparison - the same dress at 10 weeks and 21 weeks

I finally got around to making another version of the dress in April out of this crazy loud floral sweater knit, also from Michael Levine.

I didn't realize just how much less stretch this fabric has compared to the teal dress though and really should have added a bit of room in the sleeves and the bust, since it's a bit more snug than I normally prefer. This was my Easter dress this year since it was so chilly and it still fit over the baby bump, so I guess the fit isn't awful. I'm guessing that (eventually) after baby it will be even better.

Hot Patterns 1090 - Warm and Cozy Weekend Dress

I'll admit, the Uptown Downtown Knit Dress from Hot Patterns was nowhere close to being on my radar... until I saw Michelle's version. It looked so comfy and easy - basically the requirements of a perfect weekend dress.

I got the pattern during the holidays, but was a bit unsure of what fabric to use. As luck should have it, I ordered a burgundy "wool sweater knit" from Fashion Fabrics Club during the winter and was expecting a nice sweater knit that I could use to make a wrap cardigan or maybe a dress. However, when it arrived, it resembled a slightly higher end french terry or sweatshirt fleece - something that was also noted by Lindsey T and Amanda S. While it wasn't right for my original sewing plan, I knew that it would be great for this dress.

I kept putting off starting this project because I wanted to muslin the dress first, since this was my first time sewing a pattern from this company and HP doesn't give finished garment measurements. Even after doing a muslin, I still had to make alterations along the way to accomodate the heft of the fabric and my personal preference. I started off with a size 16 in the skirt and after shaving off a ton on the sides, I probably wound up with a size 10 or 12 on bottom. For the bodice, the arms were cut to an 8 and the main bodice was a size 10. I should have cut the sleeves a bit longer, but made up for it with longer wrist bands.

I was lucky that this fabric had lycra in it, so the self-fabric bands behaved well in regards to springing back to their original shape after being stretched to fit the neck and wrist holes. However, the thickness posed a bit of an issue for this novice and cause a few puckers that I eventually gave up trying to work out. Ah well, the one in the front, that is most obvious, I'm just calling a "design feature." ;) I was also annoyed that somehow the elastic at the waist went in a bit wonky (total user error) and there seem to be a few more gathers on one side than the other. Grrrr. Thank goodness this dress really looks best when worn with a belt, as it hides the elastic snafu for the most part.

{photo by Jim}*

So, after the list of mistakes and issues, what did I think of the dress? I really like it! It's super comfortable and the wool fabric makes it incredibly warm and cozy when paired with tall boots. I've worn this to run errands on the weekends twice and was as comfortable as if I had been in my pajamas, but I think I looked much better. Ha! I even wore this out today during the downpour we were having in Los Angeles and was thrilled to not have been schlepping around in jeans that would have just gotten soaked within seconds of being outside.

If you're hemming and hawing about making this dress, just do it already! I promise, you'll be very happy with it. :)


* Jim is now insisting on photo credits on the blog. I thought it was pretty obvious that he is my personal photographer, but for the record it is my very sweet (even when he is making fun of me for the hurried photo shoots) husband.

** Yes, my hair is shorter than the last crop of pictures. I went in for a trim and since my hair grows so fast, she thought she'd go a bit shorter than normal so the style would last longer. It's fine, but I think I prefer just going in more often to maintain the shape. Ah well. I figure I'll just have her reshape it a bit when I go back in May and I'll return to the flippy 'do.