blue green colorblocked knit dress

i want to sew with more knits, but i haven't been thrilled with the knits at the chain fabric stores nearby, and ordering knits online is a gamble. if you remember, the last striped knits i ordered online ended up feeling slinky almost like a swimsuit, but i used them anyway for my stripey dress. so this time i wanted to pay attention to fabric content and weight. i wanted something mostly cotton for that soft feeling, with some stretch for a nice recovery, and something at least medium weight. i didn't want to end up with something tissue thin.

so i ordered 1 yard of a green michael miller knit. at almost $13 a yard, that's around the top of what i'm willing to spend on a yard of fabric. (and a $20 yard of fabric for me is a splurge.) but i'd rather pay a little more and get something i like, than cheap out and then be unhappy with it, because that would be a total waste. but what am i really going to do with just 1 yard. i really wanted to make a dress. i'd need closer to 2 yards. the green was now out of stock (but it looks like it's back in now) and even if it was, i'd risk that chance of getting fabric from a different dye lot and it might not be exactly the same green? so wheels in my head spinning, i decided to color block it. i thought a navy blue would look good with this green. so i ordered this navy blue michael miller knit. note that both times, of course i ordered several other things to push my orders past the $35 mark so i could get free shipping. fabric.com you are so clever with your free shipping offers.

well what i received was not really navy. it was more of a royal blue. in fact it was almost exactly the same color as the royal blue ponte knit that i'd also ordered. usually i'd be like, who cares, close enough, but i wasn't sure how this blue would look with this green. and now that the dress is done, i still wish it was a darker navy, but such is life. but i will add that fabric.com's customer service was very helpful and even sent me a refund on the navy, when i contacted them to check and make sure there wasn't a mix up because the color was so different from what i saw online. and i know that colors on computer monitors can appear differently, so i wasn't expecting a refund or anything, just verification that i was sent the correct fabric. anyway thank you fabric.com for restoring my faith in customer service. esp. after the nasty lady at joann's... i promise i'm not a crazy demanding customer, but i know that people should be treated civilly. hopping off my soapbox now.

so this dress is a similar shape to my stripey dress, but i re-drafted the top to change the back. the skirt is 2 rectangles with 2 narrower rectangles sewn and topstitched to the bottom. i was very careful to get all the seams to line up. and i added pockets. i just used the same pocket pattern piece i made for my last dress. overall i'm happy with it. it is Super-Comfy. i love this fabric. it's exactly what i'd want in a knit. thank you michael miller! (although i wish you made your navy darker.) i used the clear elastic that i also ordered from fabric.com and i like it a lot more than the regular elastic i'd been using. it's a lot less bulky, and i'm using it on the lady skater dress that i'm working on right now.

i wore this dress to work last week and then out to dinner with friends. it's not exactly work-wear, it's more like weekend wear, but i got away with it since our department is business casual and with a sweater (since the AC is freezing) it's less weekend-y. i got zero comments on it, which at my office is a win! ha ha, the women around me all know i sew, so they're always asking me "did you make that?" but no one asked me about this dress, so i'm thinking that means it looked store-bought. that's what i'm telling myself anyway.