#littlereddressproject

Happy Christmas everyone! I hope you’re all having good ones. I decided it would be fun to take part in the #littlereddressproject hosted by runningnstyle as it was a short but sweet project that wasn’t too much of a commitment.

Back in June I won a couple of patterns from Colette Patterns for my leather skirt that I entered for the Monthly Stitch Indie pattern month. For my prize I chose the Moneta and the Laurel.

Fast forward to November and I went to the Sew Up North meet-up with red jersey on my shopping list. I was pretty successful and bought this slightly sparkly red jersey in B & M fabrics in Leeds.

It was only £5 per metre and it’s a lovely quality fabric. The Jersey’s nice and thick like a ponte but quite a bit more drapey. Perfect for a Moneta!
Despite buying the fabric in early November I knew I wouldn’t be able to sew it up until well into December as I had quite a few sewing commitments lined up. I was informed that the Moneta wouldn’t take long to sew up and that was mostly correct. However I managed to string it out a little so I couldn’t wear it on my works Christmas do. I did end up wearing it on Christmas day so that was OK.

I managed to sew most of the dress up on my overlocker. I had to use normal elastic for the shirred waist as I didn’t have the clear elastic specified in the pattern but I think it worked fine. However I did spend some time unpicking the basting stitches which ended up on show. The only issues I had was with my blasted sewing machine that hates sewing thick knits. There were a fair few skipped stitches when I twin needled the neckline and hemmed the sleeves. I ended up sewing two parallel lines of straight stitching for the skirt part as I was getting a bit annoyed by that point. This hem doesn’t need to stretch though so it was fine. Anyway, enough waffle. Here is my dress…

I’m pretty pleased with my dress. I thought it was a bit of a risk as I don’t think I suit gathered skirts but this doesn’t look too bad. I’ve discovered that no two knit fabrics are the same so it’s hard to know what I would do differently next time round. This fabric is quite heavy so it pulls at the waist and that waist seam could do with being half an inch higher, particularly at the back.

Importantly the dress had pockets as demonstrated here…

These photos were taken during a bracing walk along the sea front which just so happened to provide a colourful backdrop! We got quite a lot of attention as we were walking with Jess the adorable 13 week old Sprocker spaniel. She’s the hard to photo black blob by my feet!

And here’s a slightly less flattering photo of me in my red dress playing ‘Speak Out’ which is very very funny but should not be played with a full bladder!

I should be back before the new year for my rather splendid #stitchingsanta reveal. See you then!