I’ve rather been enjoying sewing with knit fabrics lately and exploring the differences in their stretch and drape and finding out what garments they do and don’t work well in.  I’m quite happy with how New Look 6071 has turned out.

This photo was taken in the early evening with a mixture of light sources, so the colour isn’t showing up accurately. It’s really fuschia, somewhere between pink and purple and maroon. The fabric is a stretch polyester crepe type of knit, from the Darn Cheap Fabrics $2 per metre table. It’s a medium weight, lighter than a ponte but more substantial than a jersey, and I’m happy with how it worked in this dress.

I cut this one out as size 12, but sewed the side and centre back seams with 1/4 inch seam allowances rather than 5/8 inch as per the pattern. It’s given me the little bit of extra room that I need at the moment with the current 3kg weight gain that appears to have all settled around my midriff. Although you can see rolls at the back it doesn’t actually pull or feel uncomfortable. I’m not quite sure what I should do about the rolls – other than lose weight of course! I suspect that if I made the dress much larger across the back it would possibly change the style lines too much and would just stick to the rolls rather than hide them anyway. Hmmmm, dilemmas. Shall think on that further. But I LOVE the twist feature at the front!

This was actually quite simple to do, and it is very effective. I used a binding along the front neckline, as per the pattern, and it has stabilised it quite nicely. Hems were secured and stabilised with Heat’n’Bond Lite before twin needle stitching. I actually prefer Vliesofix tape to the Heat’n’Bond Lite, but that’s a whole other blog post to do with easily sourcing good products. The neckline is rather low, so to make it work appropriate I needed to wear a camisole underneath.

So Freya, would you like one of these in blue?  I have more of the same type of fabric…