The Flibbertygibbet Lady Skater (a wearable toile)

The Flibbertygibbet Dress (Kitchsy Coo Lady Skater)

I've been starting the year off by trying to tick off some of the practical items from my mental "to sew" list. There was the quilt, of course, and now my first go at Kitchsy Coo's Lady Skater pattern. Having read Amber's wardrobe building post where she advocates shopping for your real life, not your imaginary life, I decided I needed to make more work appropriate clothes. I do wear my lovely structured fifties dresses for some of my jobs, and days off, and that's when I feel the most like myself. However I do spend 1.5 days a week crawling around on the floor teaching baby and toddler music classes, for which my uniform is usually a stretchy dress and leggings or jeans and a jumper; and 1 day a week where Lycra is the only appropriate clothing choice as I'm teaching kids dance. So I decided it was time to make some knit basics which I still feel like me in. Rest assured I will not stop sewing full skirted woven dresses, I would never want to do that! I am just going to aim to make some stretchy basics as well. 

I had the pattern in my stash, as well as the fabric. See, I am trying to stick to my stash busting goals!!

I cut out this Lady Skater right at the beginning of January while watching The Sound of Music Live. Then it sat in a pile for a month - a MONTH! - while I got round to sewing it. Of course,  once I found time it was super easy to sew up. This is only my second time sewing with knits,  and it was way easier to put this dress together than I expected! 

I'm really pleased with the finish. My overlocker made things super easy and even my topstitching is neat! Hooray!!!

I played thread chicken though when hemming the thing. I used a triple stretch stitch and it really uses a lot of thread! My spool ran out not even half way round, but I still had some on the bobbin so I switched the navy bobbin to be top thread and used black as the bobbin thread. Shhhh, no one will ever know. Anyway there wasn't that much on the bobbin either, and this is how close I was to not being able to finish my hem:

Thank you, sewing gods!

So, the only thing I'd like to refine for next time is the fit. Obviously this ponte is quite forgiving in terms of fit but there are a few things I'd like change. To be honest I think the fit looks worse in these pictures than in real life, but it definitely needs work, and was intended to be a wearable toile anyway. On this version I took the side seams and the sleeves in by about half an inch all the way down on each side, and I feel I could still even go a bit smaller. So next time I will cut two sizes smaller. Hopefully this will also sort out the shoulder problem - as you can see the shoulder seam is hanging off the end of my shoulder. Perhaps I shall raise the shoulder seam, too.

With this one I had to lop off the curve at the bottom of the bodice pieces. That curve was crazy big. My body may be round but it ain't that round. I also raised the waist seam a bit but it's still too low! I need to shorten the bodice more for next time.

Without the belt, you can see just how low the waist seam is. That's not where my natural waist is.

You can see some of the fit issues a bit more clearly from the side:

Look how gigantic that sleeve looks! Bloomin' heck. I've got some work to do! 

And, yep, fabric pooling ahoy.

Don't get me wrong, this dress is super wearable and very comfy. I've wore it to teach in a few times already and really loved wearing it. In fact I'm wearing it right now! I can vouch for its warmth, comfiness and practicality. The stretch recovery got well and truly tested too as on Thursday a little (adorable) toddler kept grabbing fistfuls of dress to pull herself up to standing. 

This dress was really quick to sew. I am usually really slow so this is such a novelty to me to be able to sew up a dress in a few hours! Once I've sorted out the fit I need to make a good batch of Lady Skaters so I never have the "I've nothing to WEAR!" feeling when I'm off out to teach the little 'uns. 

If you're nervous of sewing knits but would like to try it, I urge you to have a go at this pattern. Even with no overlocker it would be super easy and fast. The instructions are really good, too. 

I'm so happy tonight to have a few hours to myself to sew. I'm going to do some fit work on the Flora bodice and catch up on some TV. Ahh a lovely evening ahead! 

xx