Autumn Make No2: Self-drafted Jersey Dress

Finally I have found time to write about my latest make from my autumn sewing list: my self-drafted Jersey Dress made following the day date dress tutorial from Elle at elleapparel.

The tutorial was super easy to follow and I had to improvise at a few steps only. Here you can see the T-shirt I used as a template for my dress - do you spot the differences? ;) As Elle, I wanted to add a Pater Pan collar to my dress, because this was what actually tempted me to make the dress. But the problem was, that I don't have a jersey shirt with Pater Pan collar that I could use. So, I just used the collar that I had drafted for my Colette Hawthorn instead. It took me a bit of fiddling and cutting of a bit of extra fabric, but it fit, yeah!

The template...

...the new dress.

I basted collar and sleeves to the dress before I used my overlocker to sew the dress together. Did I say that I love her? Sewing itself was a breeze, up to the point where I had to sew in an elastic at the waistband - my first time ever! The first time I didn't stretch it, because it didn't look as Elle had done it. But the result was that the waist seam was sitting below my hips now! The jersey stretched like crazy, buh. So, I took the elastic out again, did some research on the web and found this really helpful tutorial from Tasia over a Sewaholic about how to insert elastic into a slip. This time a cut the elastic according to my waist measurement - even a bit shorter - and stretched it when stitching it in. Et voila, much much better. The fabric still stretches, but I think I can live with that.

I especially like the look of the dress and collar when I wear a white woolly jumper on top. I wanted to take a pic with the jumper, but it was in the washing machine at the time. So you just have to believe me :) I have worn the dress when I went to Germany because I figured I wanted to wear something comfy and stretchy when traveling all day. So, if you want to try to sew your own dress without having a proper pattern, I can only highly recommend this tutorial by Elle.

My topstitching is slowly getting better.

 I still have a bit of fabric left, so I might just be able to squeeze a mini jersey skirt out of it. Because when sewing the dress, I thought how lovely the fabric would be for a skirt!
How about you? Now that days are getting longer and it is getting dark so early - tomorrow even one hour earlier, buh - do you feel the urge to sit inside with a hot cuppa and get some sewing done? I would love to hear about your finished or ongoing projects :) 

Have a lovely weekend...