Vogue 1352 (again!) in blue jersey + a lesson in pre-washing

Here is the knee-length version of Vogue 1352 that I had cut out when I posted the June maxi version. I finished it up about two days after that. It really is a simple dress once you get the hugeness figured out.

The solid color shows the neckline gathers off nicely whereas they were lost somewhat in the print. And while I do love to wear solid colors, I find that I really don't like to sew with them much. Anyone else feel the same? I'm not sure why this is. Maybe my eyes get tired of looking at the same color all the time.

I made the same exact modifications to this dress as the previous one. The only change I made was to fold out a good bit of length to make it shorter.

This fabric is some sort of mystery polyester that I've had in my stash forever and have no idea where it came from. I rarely wash polyester knits because they don't shrink and I'm often too impatient to get on with the cutting out stage. So I didn't wash this fabric and went about stitching it up. It's quite a bit heavier then the ITY knit I'd used before and when completed the dress was really loose on the top and the armholes drooped. Oh brother, here we go again! I pitched it in my laundry basket thinking maybe if I washed it the neckline would tighten up. Imagine my surprise a week later when it came out of the dryer 5" shorter then it had been! The neckline sure didn't gap but the waistline was now really high on me and so was the hemline. I'll wear it as a bathing suit cover up I told myself. And just today when I went to put it on to shoot these pictures I find that it has stretched back to it's original length! In all my years of sewing I've never had this happen.

I guess it's a good thing I didn't wash it first??? Then I would have cut it out in it's shrunken state and it would have grown and grown after I'd finished the garment.