Teeheehee! I finished the remaining sleeve this evening! Buh-bye asymmetrical dress of the 80s;.
My plan was to dedicate today to finishing the dress, but work reared its ugly head. You’ll see some wonkiness at the hem. That’s the evidence of my half-hearted attempt to finish the hem this evening. It wasn’t working for me, so I gave up, at least for the night.
Had I set up my serger, I would’ve been able to clean up the edges and most likely finished the hems. But no, I’m lazy. And I do have an excuse – my workroom is a war zone. No place for Mr. Serger.
Here’s a preliminary review of the pattern New Look 6080:
The pattern is pretty simple. View B had the simplest pieces – 3 major pieces (front, back and sleeves) plus a couple of facings. The other views appear simple as well. One of the views has a puffy long sleeve thing going on, which isn’t for me, at least with the fabric I had.
The pattern instructions are straightforward and simple. There wasn’t anything fancy with the dress in terms of applying techniques/sewing skills. It called for doing bust darts. I suppose the other thing, from a beginner’s perspective, would be the facings, especially the one where it opens up the neckline (which I didn’t do out of frustration). If you’re a beginner, you’ll have to do a bit of research with some terms used in the instructions. I have never seen “easing in the sleeve” before, so I looked it up. The Colette Sewing Handbook has a great illustration of how to do this.
Fit-wise, I chose to cut a size 10 based on the finished garment measurements. The dress turned out to be more tight-fitting than what I originally envisioned based on the envelope photos. I think I should’ve cut a size 12 to make it more flowy. Either that or I need to drop 20 lbs in a week.
You should also be wary of the length. The envelope shows the model (who’s probably like 10 feet tall) in the view B dress. The dress skims a few inches over her knees.
Hovering around 5 feet tall, the view B dress (without having hemmed it), falls close past my knees. Not quite past it, may about an inch? I didn’t do a muslin or bother measuring the length due to my haste, hence the length issues. So, if you’re short like me, make sure you account for the length.
I lined this dress. The pattern doesn’t tell you how to line it, nor does it suggest it. I had to figure out a lot of it on my own as demonstrated in prior posts.
Despite its flaws (flawed in relation to the envelope examples), I like this dress. I plan on styling it differently from what the pattern envelope had. I’ll probably get a skinny belt to cinch the waist, and make the top a bit blousy once the belt is on.
As for the fabric, hah, I certainly learned a lot about working with lightweight, slippery fabrics this past week. Still, I don’t know what made it right for me. I’m still not sure if I picked up the correct needle, but the hell with it, I’m buying a shitload of notions online, including the elusive Microtex needles.
