Wednesday, February 15, 2023

Red Ponte Dress with a Twist


The PatternReview Sewing Bee is underway once again! The first round challenge was set as "Knit Dress with Twist". Since dresses are my most common project I knew this one was for me. 

I puzzled a bit over what twist to add to my dress -- should it be a physical one? A conceptual one? I came up with a number of ideas and sketched them out but they felt very complicated. And I wanted to only make something I could wear, no stunt sewing for me this time around. 

Finally I thought of an idea that would look nice and be wearable. I had some burgundy red ponte in my stash that I've been wanting to use for a while now, and some scraps of black ponte from a recent Burda dress. They came together with the simple silhouette of Cynthia Rowley Simplicity 2054 to make this dress. This was a perfect pattern to use as there were no bust darts or extra seams to worry about.

To create a "twist" for this project, I inserted a strip of black ponte into the front pattern piece. This meant that I traced off the front pattern piece and split it into 3 pieces, remembering to add seam allowance to all the newly created seams. I made the insert off-centre (one edge was centre line) and at a 3" finished width, and added my twist feature to the insert. The twist is made with strips of the burgundy ponte, simply twisted once around at one end, and stitched down. The funny thing is that they are kind of like a mobius twist - I discovered that they can change the twist direction without my input. 

The other changes I made were to add pockets, using a cotton broadcloth. Using a woven for pocket bags helps to reduce stretching in the pocket area, I find. I also added 1.5" to the hem-- and I am quite short. This is a shorter dress as designed but I wanted it at knee length. I'm not much for short skirts! 

I really like the effect of the colour blocking in this dress, and it definitely wasn't one I was expecting to have in my closet prior to the Sewing Bee! This dress was enough to put me through to Round 2 of the Sewing Bee...and the challenge is Collars. And that's what I'm focusing on this week. We'll see how it goes!

10 comments:

  1. Very wearable: comfortable, classic styling, good colors on you.

    Though, at first glance, I thought you had stenciled a tire impression up the front of your dress. Also an unexpected twist, but not in a good way. (I watch WAY too much true-crime television.)

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    1. That would have been an unexpected twist! Made me laugh anyhow ;)

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  2. Congratulations on moving on towards round 2! Your dress looks comfortable too.

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    1. Thanks! Yes, the ponte is quite comfortable to wear. Just have to beware of static cling a little bit with this blend.

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    2. My 97-year-old friend recommends putting a little lotion on your hands, then rubbing your hose-clad legs, to prevent static cling from ruining your day. Tried it. Works.

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    3. This is a master level trick. Totally works.

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  3. Hi Melanie, Looks wonderful! I love your 'out of the box' idea of the front embellishment. Well done. Looking forward to your collars.

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    1. Thanks! Collars was MUCH harder. Will share it when I can...

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    2. Hi Melanie. I can imagine collars would be difficult in this circumstance as we are not often adventurous in doing anything different with collars. A real test! Look forward to seeing what you produce. ... Sara

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    3. I'll share it soon, but wow, it was tough.

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