My t-shirt dresses

Yes Sewing - can you believe it ? LOL

At the beginning of the summer, hubby & I had a day out to a local flea market. It was hot, so I dressed for the 30° weather of the day. That's me in that teeny, tiny short dress ! Hubby had his camera - OY, this dress was short when I bought it but not THIS short !!!!! Now that I've seen the pic it now gets worn with a pair of shorts underneath. 100% cotton and it shrunk a LOT. The hazards of RTW - no preshrinking. It is really comfy though and I decided to try to make a pattern and copy it in a work appropriate length. I made a knee length and maxi length pattern. Only much later did I realize there was some resemblance to the M6559 that was all over Pattern Review this summer.


This was my first version - finished sometime in June. The dress itself was a really easy sew of course, only 4 seams and the hem. The binding was another story. My first time - I tried to copy a few techniques I found online but messed them up. Got them on finally but the stitching is really wonky.

You can see the front is shorter than the back. I copied the original exactly, but am going to have to add an FBA, I think. It'll add a bit of looseness across the bust and a bit of front length. In these pics the dress isn't hemmed. I've since taken an inch off the back to even it out and hemmed it.

Second version was cut out almost right away. Before I decided I needed to adjust for FBA so this one has the cheater fix of just evening out the bottom as well. This time I lowered the front neckline about, an inch, I think. Tightened up the top of the side seam under the arm - it was stretched out a bit in the first version (maybe from the binding, but I wasn't sure - so I took it in about ½-inch right at the top). What else ? Ah, I tried the Jalie binding. It turned out pretty well. I need to work on my topstitching. More of these dresses will give me more practice.


Both are Poly/Lycra blends - no idea if they are ITY or not. The blue was a Fabricville purchase in Toronto back in May, the pink I picked up in Montreal (St Hubert St) in June or July. Bought 2 cuts that day but haven't decided if the 2nd piece will be one of these or another pattern altogether.
At the end of the day, I really like them both, wore them a lot during August and would like more.

During my websurfing in August, I found a local fabric store that carries Jalie patterns as well as patterns from BraMakers Supply. Interesting, very interesting. I went with a list - Jalie 2327, 2908 and 2794 all came home with me (not my whole list, but I'll be going again, for sure - the 45 minute drive means not often, but definitely going back).

Yesterday, I pulled out the 2327, decided on the size, traced it and cut out. Now trying to figure out the flatlock on the serger. After WAY to much time examining both DH and DB's underwear, LOL, I'm pretty sure that's the seam I'm supposed to be using. If it works out, that the end of horrendously expensive underwear for DH. It's awful what they charge for such a little bit of fabric and an elastic. Sorry, Marjie, this is another one you may not want your dearly beloved to know about. :-)