Vogue 8489 - Black & green print knit dress

Here's my new dress, fresh off the machine. I made plans for this dress here, and actually got it made before the weather turned chilly.

This is only my second knit dress ever. I'm a weirdo who thinks knits are way more challenging then wovens. Those black bands are knit as well but interfaced so they have no stretch and act like a woven. Sewing the two types of fabrics together was surprisingly easy. Here's the back.

The sleeves are 3/4 length, perfect for a Texas fall/winter. This dress has so much comfort and swing that I put it on and don't want to take it off. In fact, I wanted to have a picture made while I was twirling in it, but my photographer was slightly grumpy and in a hurry to be done...

I knew it would be low going into the project and planned to wear a cami underneath. I tried a black and it was too distracting. What do you people this about this nude color? The front pieces are gathered along those top bands as well as the front skirt. I think this pattern has so much style and lovely details that I always go for.

Here on the side you can see where I had to match the seams of the bands where they meet the top and the skirt. Also you get a better shot of the front gathers.

Now let's look at the innards. The reason I don't sew with knits more is because I don't have a serger and the insides look messy. And you all might know by now that I don't like messy insides. Anyway, this jersey knit was thin enough that I could do french seams along the shoulders and sides without adding much bulk. This isn't necessary because knits don't ravel, it's just something I like to do. This is a shot of the shoulder seam. I also put bias tape around the sleeve seam. All those facings were slip-stitched by hand.

This is a shot of the underarm.

These next two are pictures of the zipper closing. I have fallen in love with invisible zippers and will never go back to the other kind. It's much easier to match corresponding seams while using one. Perhaps I will do a tutorial on this technique... Also, while attaching an invisible zipper you are actually sewing on the zipper and not the bodice fabric, in turn avoiding all of the stretch of your bodice fabric.


I made the view E, the red dress, but used contrast fabric for the bands.

This was a fun challenge. Now I was going to show you Vogue 8416, which is finished as well. But while putting it on for my "photo shoot", I noticed it needs some attention in one little spot. So I will attend to that tonight and perhaps blog about it in a day or two. Have a great evening!