Longshaw Dress

I have picked a slightly maverick pattern to try and it has been a happy surprise. It comes from the new book 'A beginners guide to sewing knitted fabrics' by Wendy Ward.

My pal Christina sent me some unwanted viscose jersey. It is a drapey fabric with lots of stretch and movement in all directions - a tricky customer but I loved the navy blue spots especially as I can't get in my similarly patterned vintage tennis dress anymore :( 

You can see how inaccurate you could be with this fabric. I wanted to have a double layer on the front to avoid any knobbly bra texture on my frontage and this is what I thought would be two pieces the same! I used the cutting mat and my rotary cutter to trim the one on the back down to match.

I sewed the two front pieces together within the seam allowance and treated it as one front piece. My pinking shears chewed the fabric like toffee so I didn't even try to put this one through my over locker, it is just the kind of fabric is eats for dinner.

So what was so maverick about it? Well, this is one of the skirt pieces?? You cut two and join them together then the 'wings' at the side folded in to make integrated pockets and waterfall sides.

For the neckline and arm binding I went to my favourite technique. You sew the binding in a ring and pin it right side to wrong side of the dress which feels strange. Sew it on to secure it. Next bring the binding forward rolling it over the raw edges. Take the dress back through the machine with the right side showing so that you can neatly top stitch it in place.

It has a really neat finish and the fabric feel fabulous.

The pattern uses the Winnats tank top and the Longshaw skirt from the book to make a dress

I finished it on Wednesday night, had it on after work on Thursday for a try out then wore it with navy leggings to work on Friday for an office day. I really like wearing it, definitely worth trying something new for a change. Here is another beautiful version.

Enjoying the sunshine? A massive mood lift here as you can see.

Jo xxxx