November 17, 2014

Quiet-night-in dress

With the days getting shorter, darker and colder, it's only natural to want to make clothes which are nice and warm and cozy.

And last week, I did just that. Unfortunately, the days are now short and dark enough to really restrict picture-taking-time to the weekends (if I want E to help me, that is), so it took me until yesterday afternoon to get photographic evidence.

As much as I love a tailored look, there's just nothing more comfortable than a dress in a knitted material. So, when I recently found this fairly thick ribbed knit at the market (on sale for 1 euro a meter), I thought it would be perfect for a dress for those dark autumn and winter evenings. It's a mystery fibre but it neither has the static cling nor the sweatiness of polyester, so that's fine. The colour is a rather dull one between pale grey and beige (is this the colour they call 'greige'?). At first, I thought that might work well. I've had much luck with gray/olive tones in the past. They might look boring on their own but do wonders for complexion. This one was too pale for that though.
So, I had to do something about that. 

On the left is my original idea, on the right what it evolved into. The dress with the short bodice is, in shape, inspired by the fashionable silhouette of about 1960, longer bodices with gathered skirts had quite a following around 1954 (although I've never seen an example in a knit, so that's not very relevant for this design). The yoke-in-rings takes its inspiration from the Nordic sweaters which are suddenly everywhere on the highstreet (which is kind of funny because I made one last year on the knitting machine). I originally thought I would would make it look even more like that by embroidering over the yoke in knitting yarn but, as usual, I decided against extra embellishment in the end.

The dark rings are made from charcoal grey pointe knit from my stash. 
The construction of the yoke was a bit of an experiment: I knew I was using stretchy materials. I also knew the rib knit made my main fabric clearly directional. And it doesn't stretch vertically. 
So, considering all that, I decided to cut the rings for the yoke as strait bands of fabric, like you would for a T-shirt's neck band (but in single layers, except the high neck piece).

Each band was cut at the length it would need to be at its top edge and the bottom edge was stretched to fit the piece below it when it was sewn. 
And it worked. 

The skirt has a bit of a construction-story as well: To gather it, I basted through the rib so I could pull it in, essentially using the fabric's own gathering.


To make the dress look like the drawing, I need a belt and a petticoat. It's a fun look but I think I will nearly always wear it without. 

P.S. My apologies for the overly present tea cup in the pictures.

20 comments:

  1. Gorgeous dress and it's so fabulous on you!

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  2. I love it! I think it looks extra stylish with the belt though :)

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  3. I love it. perfect to keep cozy and I imagine it was fun to make the pattern pieces.

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  4. I Love it! This is one of my favorite silhouettes and time periods and I think you translated it beautifully into a knit! What a cozy dress!

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  5. That looks great! It was very brave to do that with knit and it turned out so lovely!

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  6. I love it! I never would have thought to use a knit for a style like this, but it really works nicely and I bet it is very comfortable.

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  7. I absolutely love it! I'm off to search for some rib knit to replicate it for myself... he he. :)

    Brigid
    the Middle Sister and Singer

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  8. Wonderful! Your handling of the knit fabric is amazing!

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  9. Love it, the shape is glorious. Especially with the belt.

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  10. Great dress. A copycat version is on my list now.

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  11. The way you gathered the skirt portion is genius!!

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  12. This dress is beautiful! You did a great job making the different knits work together.

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  13. Gosh, your dress is gorgeous! I really love it. =)

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  14. So gorgeous and I am a little jealous of the 1 euro a meter fabric, wow!

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  15. I am in love with this, and need to make one immediately.

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  16. Dashing,Wonderful, Gorgeous dress and extra stylish.

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  17. This is really gorgeous and looks super comfy and warm for winter!

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  18. I think your dress fits you beautifully and it looks so comfortable. You are on my list of 2014 favorite sewing projects
    http://en.inthemoodforcouture.com/10-lovely-outfits-sewn-2014/

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