Yet another Sewjourn make – the StyleARC Milly dress.

I used the softest ever orange and bright blue striped knit for this dress – it’s so snuggly to wear. From the Darn Cheap Fabrics $2 per metre table again – score! This is a simple dress to make, but takes a little patience and precision to get all those tucks on the front correct – there are fourteen in total.

You do need to do some careful marking and measuring to get them right, but the pattern does provide a piece for you to compare the front to once you have sewn the tucks to make sure that you’ve got it the correct shape and size. Luckily for me I got it right! I used Vilene Formband bias tape to stabilise the neckline and the shoulder seams, rather than cutting Vilene stays as suggested in the instructions. This is a wonderful product to use with knits – you fuse it to the shoulder seams and neckline (or wherever you want to stabilise) with the chain stitch just inside the seamline. Wonderful.

Of course, you could just use narrow strips on interfacing that are cut on the bias as an alternative. But I find that some of these products really do help to make your sewing that little more professional and make it easier to keep your knit sewing looking good.

The v-neckline is bound with a strip of fabric sewn right sides together, then flipped over the seam allowance and stitched in the ditch from the outside. I have to admit that I’m not completely happy with the neck binding, purely because I used a narrow stripe and it is hard to get it exactly right so that the stripe doesn’t “wobble”. It’s wearable, but not perfect. Of course, it wouldn’t be an issue in a solid or a print – but of course, I chose a stripe!

Otherwise, I’m very keen on this dress. The sleeves are your usual plain long straight sleeve, and the back is rather simple as well. I made size 12 for this, but looking at the photos I wonder if I’d have been better making a size 10 through the shoulders but doing a FBA. Maybe, but maybe not. Photos can be deceptive – but they can also be quite telling!  Looks as though I need a slip underneath as well…

Anyway, I really like this dress, and will possibly make another one (or even two – a 3/4 sleeve version would be good for autumn/spring). I’ve worn it a couple of times already and it works in nicely with the rest of my wardrobe.