Getting My Groove Back

It’s not like I have a regular readership, but for some reason I feel like I need to apologise for having disappeared for so long.  But realistically, who cares? So, if you have missed me, sorry – but you probably haven’t!

Fact of the matter is, I made me a party dress, and while it wasn’t a total disaster, it wasn’t to my mind a roaring success either. It was a long, involved process, and it kind of put me off for a while. I needed to indulge other hobbies, you know? So that’s what I did.  Maybe one day I’ll tell you about the dress. It’s not as bad as all that, really.

Anyway, now I’ve made a piece of clothing I actually like!  Presenting: The Groove Dress by Made It Patterns.

I don’t remember how I found the pattern – Instagram maybe? – but I was instantly drawn to the hood option. In fact, this pattern has loads of options, including 4 or 5 different neck lines, sleeve lengths, high/low or rounded hem… you get the idea, you can customise this a bunch.  Its discovery coincided with an eBay find of some reversible knit fabric in black and grey. Sold.

So, as you can see, I went for the hood, the high/low hem and the long sleeves. I did a 1/2″ forward shoulder adjustment, something I need to do on pretty much any top or dress and always forget to, so I was super proud of myself for doing it here.  I shortened the dress by 4″, so the ‘high’ of the high/low hem was at about miniskirt length.  I felt like I wanted thumb holes in this, so I lengthened the sleeves by 2″ and flared the ends slightly to go over my hands.  I stabilised the fabric where the thumb holes were to go with some medium weight fusible interfacing and sewed in the largest buttonholes I could manage.

Real talk: It didn’t occur to me to stabilise right away.  I spent quite a long time wondering why sewing a buttonhole straight into knit fabric wasn’t going so well, and it was only while impatiently unpicking an entire buttonhole did it occur to me to make the fabric less stretchy.  What a tit.

The whole thing took me a couple of evenings, so it was a super quick make.  I was surprised to see darts included in the back piece of the pattern, considering it’s designed for stretch fabrics, but they give the dress a lovely subtle shaping.  I had intended to make the dress reversible, making a feature of the overlocked seams, but those darts put the kaibosh on that idea. No matter – you can still see the the grey side of the fabric due to the high/low hem and I made sure it was the right side of the hood lining too.  The fabric is quite a heavy one, almost a scuba weight, but it’s lovely and cosy for winter.

Sizing wise, I was tempted to make it a size down from the size my measurements suggested, muttering things like ‘it’s a stretch fabric, it’ll probably stretch out’ and ‘I’m totally going to lose some weight’; a sensible sibling pointed out that I could always take it in, but I can’t let it out as easily.  Thus I made the right size for my measurements, and actually, it’s spot on. Clever sister.

I love it quite a lot.  There’s something a bit medieval badass about it – maybe it’s the hood.  It looks pretty good with a belt too, although I’d prefer the kind of belt that hangs off the hips, and they don’t seem to make those in lard arse size yet.

Much credit to my beautiful sister, Rosetta, for taking these photos for me.  She’s a bitching photographer, and I’m lucky to be able to drag her to the local underpass for a photoshoot, ha ha.  Boyfriend one laughed when he saw my super posey pics – I don’t care.  I think I’m properly dressed to go Medieval on his ass.