As an addendum to yesterday’s post about my Elle pants, I wore them on the weekend.  With a long top, and being careful about choosing underwear that didn’t create too much VPL.   I asked my honest friends if they were okay to wear in public, and they all said yes!  So there you go! The fabric definitely gave more with wear and body heat, as stretch wovens do.  And yes, they were comfortable.

So, on to New Look 6039!  This little dress will hopefully be worn by Miss Stella on Christmas day.

The fabric is a dotted swiss cotton from Spotlight, in a blue/grey with yellow/mustard dots. Since the seam lines were so delightfully placed, I decided to highlight them with flat piping in the same colour as the dots. I also added flat piping to the sleeves, and used it for the armhole and neck facings.

To add the flat piping to the sleeve hems I cut four sleeves instead of two. I sandwiched the flat piping (just bias cut strips folded in half) between two of the sleeve pieces, effectively using one piece as a lining, sewed it into place them turned it to the right side. Easy peasy, and no hemming needed. Repeat for the other sleeve.

For the seams, I sewed the flat piping to the side pieces, then to the centre/skirt pieces. The stitching lines from attaching the piping came in handy here. The centre back has an invisible zip – and it really is rather invisible apart from the zipper pull at the top!

Rather than facings, bias binding has been using around the neckline and armhole edges. I wrapped it right around the edges to enclose them completely before stitching them into place. I made this in size 4, and although I suspect that it might be a little on the short side, it will hopefully look gorgeous on Stella. Now fingers crossed that she likes it and will agree to wear it!