A lady skater dress

Well the Winter Olympics is over and I particularly enjoyed the ice skating.  These .were my favourite moments.  Yulia lipnitskaya performing Schindler's list (and only 15!).

 

 

 

Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov performing Black Swan which I thought was fabulous.

 

 

Neither performances won, but they were my favourites, both Russian and tragic!  I wish I could skate (the flat feet, gammy knees and inner ear not to mention fear mean this is unlikely).  So for the moment I will have to make do with ........ (yes a terrible link!) ......  a skater's dress! 

 There have been dozens of the  lady skater's dress on blogs, so this is nothing new but it was  my first time working with stretch material and I went for Ponte di Roma which is a thick stretch material, so I learnt how to use the stretch stitch on my machine, used a stretch needle for the first time and did a bound neckline. 

This was obviously quite a different make for me; non-vintage and a more ordinary item.  Previously I felt that it wasn't worth making clothes which you could buy in the shops for a similar price and which would probably be better made, so I'm not sure how I ended up choosing this project, although I did want to try a knit fabric.   I had to stabilise the shoulders and waist with clear elastic which was straightforward to do, but at the waist it ended up with it showing above the seam and that is a bit strange.

 

 

I also learnt how useless it is to make a muslin from different material as I made one from my usual woven fabric (yes I know, how pointless) which was far too small because it didn't stretch.  The other silly thing was that, in my typical way, I didn't read the instructions carefully enough and failed to notice that the seams should have been 3/8th"and I made mine in the usual 5/8th of an inch, this resulted in the sleeves being rather short and they are a touch uncomfortable at the elbow.  Even though I extended the length by over an inch, the dress is still rather shorter than I like to wear.  However, all in all the fit is good, rather flattering

 

All-in-all I would recommend this pattern for an easy staple.  If you are a quick sewer you could probably make it in a day (I made it over the weekend).   Generally  I managed the knit fabric, though I did find it a bit tricky.

 

 We've had some pretty windy weather recently especially on one of my favourite seaside walks.  Thought you might like to be impressed by the sit and stay, and you can see the windswept look here.

 

Finally, I had a great visit to an antique fair with a friend (hello Julia) and just in case my last post has left you convinced that knitting is always trendy this is a pattern from the 1939 Stitchcraft magazine I bought.

 

 

Bet your itching to knit one now!  Have a great week.