Monday, September 30, 2013

Kitschy Coo Lady Skater Dress in Royal Blue

i love this dress pattern! this is the Lady Skater Dress by Kitschy Coo. i finished it last week and wore it out over the weekend. it's easy to just throw on and look put together. it would also be so comfortable for traveling. i used a royal blue ponte knit on sale from fabric.com. be careful if you use a ponte because they don't all have a lot of stretch and might not work well, because this needs a knit with a decent amount of stretch. but the ponte i used was fairly stretchy so i gave it a go. and i think it worked out well!



the fabric was labeled "medium weight" and i think the weight of the skirt is pulling the bodice down a bit, so i'll probably raise the waist up a little on my next one. maybe an inch. on the sleeves i ended up taking 1.25 inches off the sides of each because the sleeves were too loose, but that's probably a "me issue" because of my lack of biceps. on the next one i'll try taking a wedge out of the center of the sleeve pattern piece beforehand to see if that works better.


this was actually my first time using a pdf pattern to sew a garment for myself. i've used pdfs to sew some baby clothes and purses, but those had only a few pages. the pages of this covered nearly all of the empty floor space in my sewing room, but it really wasn't too bad. i found that it was quicker to just trim the right and bottom sides off of all of the pages and then layer them and tape together. 

be sure to transfer all of the markings on this one! confession: sometimes i'm lazy and i don't transfer all of the markings. well it kicked me in the butt this time. there is a very important mark on the neckline that shows where the center of the neckband will meet. i sat in confusion for a good ten minutes before i looked back at my pattern piece and found the mark that i forgot to transfer to my fabric, oops! but it worked out! and the neckline looks super awesome. 

i already have my fabric picked out for my next lady skater dress! i'm going to do the 3/4 sleeved version because it's finally starting to get cooler here. and i'm using a patterned knit fabric that's not my typical style, but i think it will be fun, yay!

27 comments:

  1. Your dress looks super comfortable and really versatile. This is a gorgeous colour on you too :)

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    1. Thank you, I'm really happy it turned out pretty well :)

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  2. It looks great on you and the colour is lovely. Yay!

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    1. Thanks! I think I gravitate toward anything blue, hehe

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  3. Love a good knit dress! Looks so comfy!

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  4. It looks great! I must confess that last Friday I bought a ponte knit fabric in this exact same colour for this exact same pattern! Thanks for the tip about the weight of the fabric pulling down on the waistband.

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    1. Great minds think alike! Can't wait to see yours :)

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  5. This is the perfect combo of lovely and comfy (or it looks that way!) What a rad make in a fab colour!

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    1. lovely and comfy is what i strive for every day! haha

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  6. Very cute! I wouldn't have thought ponte would drape so well but I like how substantial it is.

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    1. thanks! maybe it's imposter ponte! it was a lot more drapey and stretchy than i expected, but that worked out for this pattern

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  7. Love the dress, the blue is lovely. I've had fabric drag down a waistband before too, it's an easy fix but be careful when washing, mine stretched out and I had to re-do it.

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    1. i thought about raising the waistband up, but decided not to bother mainly because the clear elastic is sewn to the bodice before the skirt is attached and i didn't really want to pull it all apart and put in new elastic. thanks for the tip about washing! i think i'll put it in one of those tide wash bags and maybe lay it flat to dry.

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  8. This is really pretty! It looks great on you!

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  9. This dress looks great on you! Perfect fit and color!

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  10. Such a pretty shade of blue! Makes a very cute Lady Skater dress... I like the feel of ponte knit. I think it ended up working pretty well for this! ~Laurie

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    1. me too! sewing with ponte was great - it didn't curl up and i didn't have any wavy seams. and it will transition well into fall, because it's not lightweight. i have some more ponte lined up for other dresses soon!

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  11. Great make. I love the beautiful blue and the fact that it's ponte. Ponte dresses are the best!

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  12. I recently ordered a swatch of Ponte Fino Knit in Royal from Fabric.com and I was thinking it would make a great Lady Skater so I did a Google search for Lady Skaters in ponte knit and came across your post. You've given me the push I needed to order the fabric.

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    1. Hope you love it!! Some pontes are not as stretchy as others. This blue I used was pretty stretchy but the leopard print ponte was not quite as stretchy so in probably should've gone up a size to account for lack of stretch, but other than that ponte is awesome! And it's also a great knit for beginners because it doesn't curl up or get wavy like some knits. Can't wait to see yours!

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Thanks for reading! I welcome any advice, insights, witty remarks, snarky comebacks, commiserations or just a quick hello. I'd love to check out your blog as well, so let me know where you're posting. Happy sewing!