Cutting my Little Black Dress ... #1249

Now WHY? ... you may ask, would anyone make a basic black dress for themselves?

Well, I have many reasons.
#1 - I like to sew.
#2 - I need things to blog about.
#3 - I can make it fit the way I want.
#4 - Sewing a classic, basic garment is good practice, like doing scales on a musical instrument.  And all musicians, even professionals, need to do that everyday. Ballet dancers need to do their bar exercises. In other words, practice makes perfect!

Here is the pattern I'm using. It's has full length princess seams front and back plus raglan sleeves.  This dress should be pretty easy to sew and fit. 

And a black dress is a handy thing to have in your wardrobe and my current black dress doesn't cut it anymore.  It's too big and out of style.




I like to think that even though I work for Simplicity, I am also an ordinary consumer of their patterns.  I rarely see what's going on in the offices, since I only visit once or twice a year and never see the work on their fashion patterns.  

So, first thing, pre-wash my fabric. I want this to be a dress I can wear and wear, so I need to treat the fabric the way I will treat the dress and get any shrinking over with.

Sophia Double Knit

Sophia Double Knit, 67% Polyester 30% Rayon 3%Spandex, Hand wash Line dry, 60" wide.

BUT!!! 
AFTER I did this, I THEN read the care instructions for the fabric I'm using, the Sohpia Double Knit above, and see it says to hand wash and line dry.

OOPS!  ... But, you know, the fabric feels fine.  Rogie, at Vogue fabric says people have told her "you can't kill Sophia"  Good to know.

I might not throw it in the dryer again, though.

Anyway, back to cutting.  You have to do math for an "Amazing Fit" pattern! Well, not really, but there always are some special measurements to take to determine the cup size you should use.

I've used 3 other Amazing Fit patterns in the past and I was skeptical at first, but they work about 89 percent of the time. And the 11 percent that doesn't work is easy to fix.

Now the worst part of the job ... finding all the pattern pieces.

Well, actually, the worst part is probably putting all the pieces BACK into the envelope when you are finished ... ha ha.

To determine the size I want to use, I compare my measurements with the measurements on the envelope. Then fill in the special chart on the guide sheet and also look at the finished garment measurements printed on the pattern. And I measured a couple other parts of the pattern that I wanted to know the finished measurement for, as well. It is important to draw in the stitching lines and measure from stitching line to stitching line when measuring finished garment measurements. See those faint lines in red? Those are the stitching lines I marked in. They look darker in person.

Since I am using a knit, albeit with limit stretch, I've decided to cut one size smaller than I technically should. Even a knit with limited stretch has quite a bit of give in it, so I shouldn't need as much wearing ease as I would using a woven fabric.

Wearing ease being the amount larger a pattern is cut than the body measurements to allow for sitting, bending, eating, breathing, etc.

Then I smooth out the pattern pieces with a cool iron.

I want my dress longer than the pattern, or at least I think I do, so I will cut it longer. This can always be trimmed off later, but if something starts out too short ... well you are stuck.

I used a lightweight fusible knit interfacing for the neck facings. I even had enough in black in my drawer in my studio!

After fusing the interfacing on, it is important to leave it be until completely cool to prevent bubbling.

The pieces are all cut out, ready to sew ... just one more thing. There is a definite right and wrong side to this fabric. The wrong side has a kind of unpleasant sheen to it and the right side has a rich matt finish. I'm guessing the Rayon part of the fabric is mostly toward the right side. It's hard to see in this photo.  I took the photo under my sewing machine light (hence the presser foot in the pic), because that had the brightest light in my room.

But, I will have to be vigilant.  With a very dark fabric like this, it is easy to get the sides mixed up and THEN after the dress is all done, there would be a couple panels sewn the wrong way and look horrible.

Click on the little square photo of the beige fabric above if you are interested in it.

Next time sewing and fitting.