Hacking, hoarding and beating the heat

Recently the bay area experienced a hard core heatwave. It was hot. No regular hot but “oh, my god make it stop, climate change aaaaahhhhhh” hot. This coincided to my wardrobe losing its luster. I needed clothes I liked that, that would feel good in the heat and be suitable for work.

Spendy glorious jersey fabric

I also have a bunch of fabric and I am turning into a hoarder. And that just won’t do. I had this great light weight jersey I got 2 years ago with a out of focus city print on it. It was super spendy at $25 per yard. And I splurged on it at the time when I picked it up at Stone Mountain Daughters and I am super glad I did. I haven’t seen it since.

Ready-to-wear skater dress I started with

I started the project with this skater dress that I picked up at Ross for about $12. It was pretty simple dress. I copied the pattern so I could make a new slightly longer version of the dress. I used tracing paper on a 30+ inch roll that I get for about $12 a roll at Artists and Craftsman Art Supply.

It was a pretty simple dress, made of three pieces if you don’t count the sleeves. Which were kind awkward fit wise. I laid the dress out as flat as possible ad then laid the paper over each piece and traced it off. Once I had the first tracing I used my french curve and drafting rulers to clean it. I also drafted in a high v neck.

One of the key things I did was make sure to add seam allowance notes to the pattern pieces and labeling them. I have been burned by not doing that in the past. When drafting this pattern I didn’t add seam allowance to the neck or armholes cause I intended to bind them. I also added 2.5 inches to the hem so I could wear the dress without leggings.

When I laid this out I was a little picky about the front piece being on the fold and where the print in the fabric was going to land. For the back it was only about space. I used 1.50 yards of fabric for this skater dress. It was tight but I could do it.

First I sewed the should seams on the serger and then used jersey bias tape to bind the arm holes and neck. The v-neck turned out to be a pain in the ass and I did the sewing by hand.

Once the binding was done, I sewed up the sides and then ran the bottom through the serger with a rolled hem stitch on the serger. I spread the differential to give the knit a lettuce edge.