Blue Jersey Dress for a friend

 

This is anther Simplicity 9473 dress for my friend C, this time in a knit, so back cut n the fold and zip ommitted

Blue Floral Dress

 

This dress is made from a lovely viscose (rayon) fabric in a rich blue which I bought in a charity shop 2 years ago.

The community chorus I sing with have a summer engagement and asked us to wear blue for it. So that prompted me to get the fabric out and work with it. The large scale print seemed best spread out over a dress.

The main dress is from a Prima magazine April 1998, with sleeves from a different dress in the May 2010 magazine, and front ties I drafted myself.

NOTE: Prima is a UK monthly magazine. For subscribers it includes a free sewing pattern. If bought in the newsagent then there is info on how to get the pattern. I have been a subscriber for many years.

It works quite well under the jacket.

Teal dress for C

 

Here's another dress for C, from a plain fabric out of my stash.

It is adapted from Simplicity 9122 with the rather wide neckline brought in by an inch on each side. I've added side pockets and moved the position of the front tucks down a little to suit C's full bust.

I have a metre + some scraps left over, and wonder if I could make some sort of garment for myself. I had been thinking of a top of some sort, but maybe shorts would make more sense....

Christmas Dress for C

 We had a tiny bit of Christmas print fabric which I've used for the neckband, bottom of the sleeves and as a panel in the skirt. 

The navy is a medium weight Ponte knit, the print is a stretchy viscose (rayon) knit, so there was a slight mismatch in weights, but I've made it work as best I could.

I've used Simplicity 9473 again which we've fitted to C. It is for wovens but I've used it quite a few times now for knits, just have to watch out for any vertical stretch as it affects where the waistline hits.

Instead of lining the body I've added a narrow neckband to finish the neckline.

I folded a section out when cutting the skirt front to make it less full, then cut up and inserted my panel to make it back to the correct size. There are side pockets too. I cut the sleeves shorter, then cut the lower section from the contrast, sewed the two sections together then made the dress up in the usual way.

I think this is quite a classy take on a Christmas dress and hope C enjoys it.

Gingerbread man dress

 

I've just finished this Christmas dress for my young friend C.

It features the most delightful gingerbread men.

As on several occasions, I used the version of Simplicity 9473 which we've extensively altered to fit her.

The fabric is still available at pound fabrics and was lovely to work with!

Robin print dress

This is another dress for my lovely young friend C - its a Robin print cotton fabric made up in a version of the dress from Simplicity 9473.

The fabric was narrow so I split the skirt front into 3, a centre panel and 2 side front panels, I left the back as two panels. This allowed me to have the robins the right way up throughout the dress.

I also added inseam side pockets.

The Book Dress

 

I just finished making this dress for my lovely friend C.

She picks such fun print fabrics. This one is books with flowers!

Its based one Simplicity 9122 with the rather wide neckline brought in by an inch on each side and the cap sleeves extended into short dolman sleeves. I've added side pockets and moved the position of the front tucks down a little to suit C's full bust.

Poppy Print Dress

 I've been sewing for my friend C again.

This is a cotton fabric printed with a poppy design.

The dress is based on View A, in Size XL.

I made a few changes

- flared the back by moving the centre fold 2.5" at the bottom.

- added a notch for side pockets (this finished 14" from the hem and about 7" long)

- added sleeve extension, to give a bigger cap sleeve

moved the tuck and ties down by 3.5"

I did not do the french seams as this wouldn't work with side pockets. I used self binding on the neck facing.

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Updated to add I made a floral version of the same dress for C.

For this one I narrowed the neckline by an inch on each side and raised the back neckline. Otherwise it's the same as the last version.

Red Frankenpattern dress

 

This dress is made from a red ponte fabric, using the top section of the NewLook 6735 knit top. I've lengthened the sleeves slightly and cut the top at the waistline (just folded the lower portion out of the way).

The skirt is self drafted, inspired by a friend's RTW tunic. The back is a single slightly flared panel, and the front has two side panels and a centre panel. The side panels have patch pockets which are sewn into the panel seams. The skirt is slightly gathered onto the bodice.

I planned this to be a casual dress to wear with leggings, but its come out quite nice in the ponte, so maybe it could be dressed up as well.