Category: new look 6871

scuba speed

~ velosews ~ Leave a comment

In recent years I’ve tried to build up my couture sewing skills. However when I’m sewing to a tight self-imposed, absolutely ridiculous deadline, scuba fabrics are worth keeping in the stash.

I know there’s no way a heart surgeon would rush through surgery. That’s a given. But making a knit dress that fits isn’t the same. It just isn’t.

Like I said, sewing up a knit dress shouldn’t take too much time or effort.

The blue scuba fabric had been sitting in my stash for a while (not sure how long) so it was perfect to test this New Look knit dress.

As you can see, this fabric is thick and swallows the machine stitching and there’s no pattern matching required.

Well the first pass sewing showed the fit of the dress and screamed ‘the neckline needs work’. I made a few attempts at refitting the neckline on the run. Literally on the run as you can see from the internally sewing.

Anyway, the sleeves from this pattern are short sleeves so I extended them and on the first fit they were too wide. I looked chunky so I resewed the sleeves to fit.

By the time I was ready to cut out the velvet fabric, I knew the neckline needed to be at least 2cm closer to my neck and tighter. So now on the pattern I’ve folded out the width at the neckline. The sleeve length is now noted on the pattern piece.

Scuba in your stash is a good thing. I highly recommend it.

Follow(function(d, s, id) {var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if (d.getElementById(id)) return;js = d.createElement(s);js.id = id;js.src = “https://www.bloglovin.com/widget/js/loader.js?v=1”;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, “script”, “bloglovin-sdk”))

Velvet

~ velosews ~ Leave a comment

This is a quick post to show you the final velvet dress I whipped up last week for a wedding we attended last Saturday.

I bought this piece with Allison when she visited Australia three years ago.

As Allison said, it’s a Stretch burnout velvet in a dark purple with an ombre effect.” 
We indulged a bit at Pitt Trading during her visit.


I used New Look 6871 lining the velvet with a slinky knit. The pattern has short sleeves so I extended them.

The back is shaped but the fabric doesn’t really show this well. 

I hand stitched the hem and the rest of this dress was machine stitched with a tiny zigzag stitch as the base is a knit fabric.

Let me tell you a secret. 

I made this dress in a scuba fabric in 2 hours and found the neckline was way too wide.
The next night I widened the neckline on the pattern so it’s more jewel like.

Yep. I’ve bossed this pattern to fit me.

PS. I wore these low-heeled shoes at the wedding and danced for 4 hours. My feet are still sore today – 2 days later. So after surgery in February I can wear low heel shoes for a couple of hours.

Follow