Now that's a (blue knit) Dress!

I spend a lot of my time making very elaborate, structured, time-consuming costumes. Every once and a while, however, I wake up and want to make something comfy and easy for myself. Such a day was the one when I found myself with a hankering for a simple knit dress.

First I went online and looked for inspiration. I found this and thought it'd be a good jumping off point as a style guide. Then I raided my fabric stash for a large piece of comfortable and durable knit fabric.

I ended up with a sort of gray/blue piece that had been in my fabric boxes for years and had already yielded up one much loved skirt. Unfortunately, while there was more of it hidden away, the piece I could find made cutting the skirt a bit tricky. I came up with a workable design, however.

I used a knit top of similar stretch to create the bodice pattern. Actually it came out a little snug, so I opened the sides back up and inserted little strips under the armholes. It's not at all noticeable when I'm wearing it, but makes it fit a lot better.

It all came together really quickly. I made the whole dress in one session.

 All of the interior seams were sewn with a zig-zag stitch, but for the skirt and sleeve hems I needed something more professional looking. This was back when I had my complicated five thread serger and could do a coverstitch. Nowadays I would just use a twin needle on my regular machine. It'd look the same on the outside.

I was so happy with how it turned out! I actually constructed it over a year ago and have been wearing it quite regularly in cold weather ever since. It's comfy, cute and doesn't wrinkle with travel. I was so excited about it that I went out and got knit fabric for two more versions of it. One is cut out and the other is still... fabric. Haha. But anyhow...