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Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Super warm sweater dress!

It's gotten cold outside so it's time to make something very warm and cozy!
πŸ’‘A fleece hoodie dress!Or at least it started as a hoodie dress...

A while ago I bought from Driessen (yes, them again!) 3 meters cobalt blue fleece to try out a coat pattern but I never got to it. So i figured, perfect for my project!





Searching for a pattern wasn't necessary since I 've found a very nice raglan sleeve hoodie dress in one of my magazines. The pattern is this dress from the January 2016 Knipmode issue:



Knipmode hoodie dress



Since I knew I'll need cord and cord stoppers, I ordered them online. Unfortunately when they arrived, the color didn't match at all 😞. So my hoodie dress would become a sweater dress instead,since I couldn't be bothered trying to find the right color πŸ˜‹.

I didn't mind since that makes it an easier dress to make. Quite a straight forward pattern, front, back sleeves and pocket pieces, no darts or anything so the only change I had to make was to bring the waist higher.I also added 2cm seam allowance on the side seams instead of 1 and later I decided I wanted it a bit looser so I used that extra cm.

I started with the pocket, basted it, stitched the openings at 1 cm and pinned my pocket to the front piece of my dress. Since my fabric is so thick and I want my topstitching to be visible and not disappear (it kind of did anyway though😢), I decided to use a thicker thread.  I also used a jeans needle no 90. Then I attached my sleeves to the front and back pieces, serged and topstitched on both sides of  my seams to add a bit more detail to the top part of my dress.




The pocket





Topstitched sleeve seam




Closing the side seams and sleeves, serging and off to the borders! I had this very dark blue rib knit fabric for cuffs e.t.c. which seemed like a good match.




Bottom border




Cuffs



 Now that the rest is done, I have to figure how I want to finish off my neckline. I was thinking about making a cowl with the fleece but that would probably be way to warm to wear in the house. So I went with my rib fabric. I didn't want a simple little border so I cut out a wide piece that was longer than the neck circumference and I started playing with that. And this is what It ended up looking like:



Finished neckline




And here's how my dress looks like:














(No, the hem isn't uneven, Roxanne wasn't standing straight!😑)

I'm happy with how it came out. Is it the prettiest dress I've ever made? Probably not but that isn't what I was going for, comfy and cozy it certainly is though!😌 Nice and easy pattern, if I make it again, I'll be adding the hood as well!πŸ’™















Monday, December 4, 2017

Trying out Lekala!

I assume many of you have heard of Lekala, it's a site where you pick a pattern, add your measurements and get am email with your personalized pattern, as they call it.

Since I always have to adjust my patterns to fit me, torso length and bust point, I decided to check Lekala out!

I browsed through all the patterns for a while, quite a variety of pretty looking patterns. The pattern  I chose is pattern number 4718 and it looks like this:


Lekala 4718



 Putting the pattern together was a pain in the ass, there were pages that had multiple numbers on top of each other which took a bit of guess work and patience. If you like puzzles you'll love the process but, to be honest, I hated it. Side note: this was also my first ever printed pattern which didn't help 😐

Also what i found unnecessary was that the front and back pattern pieces were not half (which is what you'd expect when the pieces are being cut on the fold), but the whole front and back pieces which used more paper to print and also required some folding and cutting before laying them on the fabric.

I ordered the pattern without seam allowances included so I added 2 cm on the sides of the front and back pieces and 1 cm on the rest.

With this pattern, due to the somewhat complicated neckline, I for a change, followed the instructions which, for this pattern at least, were clear and easy to follow.

 Since this is a fitted pattern for knit fabrics and I don't like wearing fitted...well...anything, I used up the seam allowances and stitched my side seams at 0,8mm. And it worked great!😊



Lekala 4718 front




Side view Lekala 4718




And a close-up








Even though this isn't a fitted dress pattern or anything similar, I have to say that it fits great! I love this top/jumper so much that I've made 2 of them so far!πŸ˜€ And I'm probably going to be making more!!

For the first one I used a beautiful knit fabric from Driessen of course and for the second one this crazy fabric I got from the stoffenspektakel ( a sort of fabric fair😍).

I love it so much that I'm staring to forget how hideous it was putting the paper pattern together😜







And the second one!














I wasn't planning of sharing this one, hence the lack of some 'in progress' pictures and less info on my process, but I really liked the pattern and the idea of  having personalized patterns so I couldn't resist!😊