Janice Dress pattern from KnipMode 6/2018 Still sewing for the summer

Dress Knipmode #23 6/2018

I think this is going to be the last summer dress. I can`t wait to start sewing for fall. The latest KnipMode is full of interesting patterns. But back to the dress above. 

My YouTube review you can see here ( including the pattern review, next projects, new fabrics and the action video)

This is one of their monthly "Jurken van Janice" ( Dresses from Janice). Every month dutch TV-personality and designer Janice presents a pattern in the KnipMode and every time there is also a video on YouTube where he shows more complicated parts of the pattern, how they are sewn up. I think that is a great idea and if he will use some more contrasting pattern/thread combination for the instructional video, it will be even better to understand some methods. 

This dress has a lot of nice details. It has cut-on sleeves, gathers under the bust, shaped waistband, the skirt is a little gathered at the CF and CB. Also, it has a side seam invisible zipper, and it is really needed as the waist is pretty fitted and also a CF blind button placket closure, and this last part is covered in the video of the month (Dutch language only)

The fabric is polyester ( from my "fabric guy" @shauniosdorp on IG ), not slippery and with a nice drape. It pressed very nice but cutting was not easy. The rotary cutter didn`t want to cut it and the normal sheers were having a big time trouble to cut it also, it was like going away from it. Finally, I remembered the serrated shears I have and I tried those, PERFECT. I could not believe what a difference!

Because is a pretty loose model I did not make a muslin for this pattern. I only traced size 38 at the bust and 36 for neck, shoulders, and waist. I measured the waist to be sure that it will fit me and did a bit of paper pattern fitting to get the idea of how it was fitting. I traced the skirt size 38 and that got gathered in the waist 36.  The pattern uses the same piece for the front and the back of the skirt, and to be honest I think my "back work " needs a bit more room, but it is ok . 

Normally I make a swayback adjustment on almost all the patterns I am sewing and when I don`t do that I can notice the difference, even if it is only 2cm. In the back/side pictures you can see how the side seams tend to go forwards, I tried to pinch up horizontally at my back of the skirt, 2 cm, and that corrected immediately my swinging side seams and the bit of extra fabric I was having , but that I can`t fix in this dress anymore so it is something to remember.

I love it with the belt and a small belt loop it gets sewn at the CB, nice detail.

The instructions are good, I only changed the order a bit so that I could finish the inside better. The waistband is faced, so after I attached the waistband and it's facing to the bodice, I attached the skirt to the waistband ( the one facing the public), pressed the seam up and then I folded the seam allowance of the facing and stitched in the ditch from the outside of the garment to the skirt. I used my stitch in the ditch presser foot which works perfect, so easy!

I love the placket on the front, it would have been nice to know the required size of the buttons , there was only mentioned that you need three buttons. I think is important to know that,  thinking that the placket is designed for particular size buttons. I know mine are too small but I like them and they fit the fabric ( and I found them very fast in my stash :))

...and the back with the little loop on the wide waistband!

This was a fun project, with all kind of nice details!

Next, I want to make a new Classic shirt but in combination with other pieces from the Recital shirt from Liesl and Co., a new denim jacket from the same KnipMode 6/2018 and sewing for my daughter is high on the list.

....and here you can see the "action" video 

Happy Sewing! 

DIY Knipmode Dress #1/06/2018 or Another Denim Dress

These days I am busy sewing from the enormous stash of sewing magazines I have, no punishment, so many nice patterns that I have on my list so nothing to complain. 

Today`s make is another pattern from KnipMode magazine, dress pattern 1 from issue 6/2018. 

I love the seams on the front of this dress! 

In the magazine, the dress is made with a pencil skirt and short sleeves or with a more flared skirt and long sleeves. The dress is also fully lined. 

I made the version with the pencil skirt, no lining and used the longer sleeve pattern and added 7cm plus hem allowance. 

I traced size 36 for neck and shoulders and for the rest size 38. I made a test garment and based on that I made a few changes. I made a small video on how the muslin was fitting, if you would like to see it, you can find it here.

Fitting adjustments

Because I had a lot of room above my bust,  the same as in my other Knipmode dress , I took again out 3cm horizontally, on the front bodice ( at approx. 7cm down from the center front neck) and back bodice and from the sleeves only 1.5cm to get them fit back on my adjusted bodice.

 I also had to make a swayback adjustment, I had some fabric bunching at my back of the skirt and also the side seams on the skirt were swinging to the front. After taking 2cm out at the CB and blending to nothing to the side seam of the skirt, all these issues were gone.

The skirt was very long on me so I shortened it by 11cm.

Also based on my muslin I decided to take the side seams in by 1cm on each seam, now I am thinking that maybe 0.5cm per seam was better. The denim I used, has some stretch so it still is comfortable.

Sewing the dress

Usually, I don`t use sewing instructions but in case of patterns with special seams or, you know, different than usual two darts and a waist seam,  I do use the instructions. In this case, the text was pretty clear to understand ( of course if you understand dutch :)) , but I even understand how the walking vent was supposed to be sewn, so that is a plus for KnipMode.

I choose denim and that called of course for topstitching! When I need to do topstitching, I am using an older machine( second hand bought a few years ago )only for that. It is so much faster when I don`t need to change my thread and needle and adjust the tension for this part of the sewing.  I tested on a piece of my fashion fabric the color, stitch length and tension on that machine and that was set for topstitching only. If I had to do that only on one machine, I would sew as much as possible and then do the topstitching on those pieces and so on, to avoid all the changes after each seam.

My dress is unlined so I had to finish the neckline in another way, in this case with a bias band. Worked great!

In the magazine, they used a centered zipper but I  used an invisible one, I wanted an exposed metal one, but sadly I could not find one to fit, in my stash.

Conclusions

I love the seams on the front of this dress! What I don`t love are the raglan sleeves! I sew just a couple of times raglan sleeves and maybe that is a reason why I can`t get them fit me right or why I don`t like them. I love inset sleeves and I think if this dress had inset sleeves it would have been perfect. 

All in all, I like this dress, it was fun to sew and to topstitch all the seams. Pretty easy project and a nice dress for the fall. 

I love denim dresses and I have a few in my wardrobe, you can see them here and here. 

***

I also made a video review on YouTube, if you'd like to see that you can find it HERE 

The action video is at the end of that video review, or here  at minute 11.14 :) :

Next project 

Next, I have another Knipmode pattern traced, from the same issue as above, 6/2018, this time dress 23 .

I have a few fabric options, you can see them in the video above and I think the dress is perfect for summer. 

Happy sewing !