Sewing Leprechaun Knit Dress

2021-06-04

I used regular 100% cotton knit with 220 gsm for this. In manner of pattern I just used a T-shirt pattern, measured everything else and traced it directly on the fabric (you can hate me for that if you wish). In the beginning I wanted it to be a turtle neck dress. However I didn't like how it looked since the dress is also long and it was practically covering me from head to toe with its endless greenness. I decided there must be more visible skin and opted for a standing collar instead.



This dress (like so many other clothes I made) was created in two stages. Somewhere in the construction I encountered an issue I didn't know how to deal with, got frustrated and put the whole thing aside. Now I find myself getting back to projects I abandoned and it makes me so happy! I find solutions for problems I couldn't even identify before, many times I accomplish with ease tasks I used to be struggling with. I remember often feeling stuck because I couldn't move past those obstacles, all these things preventing me from finishing the work. Looking back, I can see how much I have learned, not only in terms of skill and method, but also perseverance and purposefulness. That's a lot of self-improvement talk, so back to sewing.

I improved the overall fit of the dress using armhole darts. It looks so much better, even when using a fairly stretchy jersey fabric.



Then I treated everything with an overlocker as per usual.



One of the older seams, back from times when I was setting up my overlocker machine for the first time and didn't get the tension correctly.



I kept those seams, that particular thread being loose isn't too bad an issue in terms of functionality. This was also a big part of my learning process – accepting miner imperfections and moving past them towards the main objective. Yes I could rip everything apart and start all over again, but I can also try to work with what I already have and build upon it to still get a satisfactory result, making the whole process simpler and more enjoyable. I used to be obsessed with every tiny detail, endlessly fretting about silly little things and never actually getting things done. Now I understand that it's not about getting every single feature perfect, it's about the complete piece in the end. The chances are that no one will ever notice that particular imperfect seam.

Anyway, I finally discovered the proper setting for my sewing machine when sewing knits. When I feel lazy to work with a twin needle I use a zig-zag stitch to finish the hems instead, like here.



I almost never overlock the edge, mostly because it's more convenient, but also because I had some issues with the seam restricting the fabric's elasticity. The zig-zag stitch alone seams to be doing just fine.

By the way this was the very first fabric I purchased in my life (and I had no idea what I was doing). I guess I was lucky that it was at least suitable for the type of garment I intended it for. I chose the color on a whim and halfway trough the work I was thinking that I'll never wear such a thing. But I got to like the color again and improved my skills to be able to finish the dress in the present! And that's the story of this knit dress.





Komentáre k článku

krtek
14.Jun 2021 19:04
Ja mam take filajkovéééé :)
Pridať komentár:
Meno*: Pohlavie: on ona ono oni
URL/web: zapamätať? (použije cookies)
blah:   Antispam*: ( 15 plus 4 je ? )
Text*: * treba vyplniť aspoň polia označené hviezdičkou