Spotlight have really improved their offerings over recent years. My local Spotlight is a pretty small one, and I am often frustrated when I can’t find what I want. One day while wandering around not finding what I wanted, Clare spotted this floral viscose jersey. The colours are so lovely and vibrant that I was able to ignore how off-grain it was on the roll, and bought some to sew her New Look 6297.

New Look describe this pattern as follows: this knit dress for girls can be made as a sleeveless maxi dress with trim near the hem or a high low hem both have racer back with bow. dress can also be a short high low with cold shoulder short sleeves or no sleeves.

We chose the high-low hemline with cold shoulder short sleeves. I have decided that I really like this sleeve treatment! It’s a two-piece sleeve. The curve for the “cold shoulder” opening is hemmed, then sewn together at the bottom and overlapped at the top. A little fiddly but not too difficult, and certainly effective. I sewed size 10.

Once again I used a zig-zag stitch on the sewing machine to secure all the hems and the neckband. I’m rather enjoying the zig-zag stitch rather than the twin needle at the moment. I think that I go through fads. It sits nice and flat, stretches without any difficulty, and adds a decorative touch when sewn in a contrasting thread colour.

The high-low of the hemline is rather extreme. Clare says it feels funny fluttering against the back of her ankles, but that hasn’t stopped her from wearing it. The top and the skirt are constructed separately, then joined together with the seam allowances of the join being used to form a casing for waist elastic. I included a couple of little ribbon loops at the side seams when I joined the top and the bottom, so that the waist tie could be threaded through them and held in the right place.

I also made sure that the neckband had plenty of colour in it and placed it so that there was as much contrast between the neckband and the bodice of the dress as possible. The little things like that add up to a much more satisfying garment, in my opinion. A considerable portion of the final success of the garment is determined when it is being cut out, in my view. The size, alterations, pattern matching or colour placement – all of those things are important.

Speaking of cutting out, it was a pain. I pre-washed the fabric, which is really important when sewing with rayon or viscose as they often shrink, and the amount of off-grain I noticed when the fabric was on the bolt increased even more. Argh! I did my best when cutting, and it has all worked out alright in the finished garment, but didn’t make that part of the process very enjoyable. Fortunately the resulting dress is lots of fun and a welcome addition to Clare’s wardrobe.