Happy New Year!! Wishing everyone all the BEST in 2018! 🙂
Have you ever used the hashtag – seamworkmag on Instagram? Well, if you do you could potentially be chosen as a Seamwork favorite for the month and win a prize!
Surprisingly, I was chosen as one of the three finalists for the month of November for my Aires Leggings. I posted about my leggings for #bpsewvember and although I didn’t win the big prize, I won my choice of 2 yards for jersey knit fabric from their new fabric shop.
They had three colors available Dusty White, Pale Blue, and Terracotta. I never sew anything up in white so I thought to myself this is a great time to step out of my comfort zone and go for the Dusty White fabric.
What did I sew up with my Seamwork prize? A Seamwork pattern of course! I looked through the Seamwork pattern selection and at their suggestions on the fabric’s description page and decided to go with their knit tent dress aka Piedra.
Seemed to me to be a nice classic dress that I could add to my work wardrobe. Although wearing a white dress to work isn’t always ideal it is a nice change of pace from my normal dark colors.
The Low Down
Piedra is knit tent style dress that was designed with the changing seasons in mind. It is a perfect mild winter dress especially for warmer climates where our winters are not terribly cold but there is still a chill in the air. It pairs perfectly on its own or with tights. I paired my Piedra dress with a long necklace and my wearable toile of the Seamwork Jill Coatigan.
The Process
I started sewing up my Piedra dress about a week before Christmas. I was really hoping to wear it for the holidays but it didn’t work out that way. I decided to use a zigzag stitch on my sewing machine but found that the feed dogs were stretching out the fabric. At first I thought maybe a good press could take care of it but I was completely wrong.
So… no Christmas dress for me! Oh well… the other issue was that although I cut Piedra out in an XS it was much too big and I needed to refine the size. But what was going to be the point of cutting this fabric to fit me properly if I didn’t have a machine to sew it up with properly??
There is always room for a Christmas miracle right? Well, Christmas morning I received a Brother Lock 1034D from my very sweet husband. Problem solved! 🙂
In order to fix the stretched seams which at the time was the back seam, the sleeve caps and one side seam I just cut the seams away. I evened out the side that I never sewed by cutting to match the other side then I sewed this dress using my new overlock machine! I adjusted the feed dogs as I felt this fabric was a bit on the stretchy side and by the end of Christmas I had my new dress!
(Side Note: I wish I had some “process” photos but unfortunately I haven’t been able to sew with natural light with the time change unless I do all my sewing on the weekends so no “process” photos for this post!)
Hiccups
- Besides stretching my seams, I messed up on the neckband a bit. The directions tell you to sew the neckband seam to match with the right shoulder seam. I didn’t like how this laid on my shoulder so I ended up cutting the neckband out with a rotary cutter and moving the neckband seam to match with the center back seam. I think it looks a lot cleaner this way but that is just my preference.
- Another thing that didn’t work out so well is the back of the sleeve cap pops out a bit too far. I needed to narrow this area on the pattern before I cut into the fabric as it is just too big for my frame. Luckily, it isn’t noticeably in the front and if I pair this with a cute cardigan or jacket it covers it up just fine.
Recommendations
- Seamwork’s sizes run a little big so if you are on the petite side I would recommend making a toile or doubling checking your measurements against their chart.
- If your fabric is on the stretchy side use an overlock machine if you have one. I absolutely LOVE the Brother machine my husband bought me for Christmas! I wish it was in my life sooner! Lol!
- Sew the neckband seam to match the center back seam.
Happy Sewing in 2018!