Stretch Matters

I should start by saying that I almost binned this dress.  

But before I tell you why, let me tell you the what.

This is another McCall's 7353, aka my new favorite dress pattern.  I used it for my current favorite thing: the Mille Fleur dress, and am now looking around at knit fabrics to make some additional dresses in the fall.  (spoiler: I already made another one for this spring)

So the pattern is fine.  But this fabric.  Let me tell you something about knit fabric (and I'm sure anyone who works regularly with knits will know this in spades).  They are not all the same.  Sometimes even knits within the same collection handle differently.  Which means every. single. time. you make a knit pattern, you are throwing a dart in the dark.  That's mostly why I've stayed away until now.  My frustration threshold for that sort of thing is pretty low.

But!  I ordered this spruce green cotton knit fabric from Hawthorne Threads, and I think it didn't have the stretch percentage listed, so I just assumed it was a regular jersey knit, going by the description.  Well.  You know where assume gets you right?  Right.  Turns out this knit fabric is so tightly knit as to handle more like a woven.  As in, it has almost no stretch at all.  I've handled quilting cottons with more stretch than this stuff.

Despite my misgivings, I went ahead and prewashed it, and forged ahead with the pattern, hoping for the best (the pattern wants about 40% stretch on the fabric, by the way).  I knew I should adjust my seam allowances to account for the lack of stretch, but I ended up with barely there seam allowances.  I was nervous that either the dress would feel like a sausage casing (I had checked the bodice fit before putting the neckline facing and finishing the sleeve hems) or that it would look too big, or just fit oddly.

My fears seemed to be realized when I tried it on a few nights ago after changing out of my day clothes for my pajamas.  Word to the wise: never try on a dress that is meant to be worn with proper undergarments to get an idea of fit.  Disastah.  The dress looked unbelievably sad.  The skirt section bagged out in a weird way, and the top just looked...deflated.  It also had just the barest whiff of pajama about it.

I folded it up and put it in a bin to think about what to do with it.  The fabric wasn't especially cheap and I hated to waste it.  I had cut the dress out such that I have enough left to make something else out of (maybe a girls' dress or a t shirt).  But man.  That lack of stretch.  Imagine my surprise when I tried it on again a day or two later (with proper underpinnings) and it looked pretty good!  And didn't feel awful on my arms!  (To be perfectly fair, it isn't quite as comfortable in the sleeves as the Mille Fleur, but neither do I feel like an overstuffed sausage).

So I'm actually quite pleased with this dress and am happy to add it to my rotation.  I did a bunch of small alterations to other garments yesterday and took a few photos this morning.  I'll share those soon.  I also made another M7353 this morning (out of a Riley Blake printed jersey that I found on clearance) and will try to photograph that one in a few days.

Yay for knits!  

(And yes, I'm aware that it is St. Patrick's Day on the New Calendar today, but we Old Calendar types don't observe it until March 30.  Besides, as I've written in previous years, 10 years of living around the corner from a bar that is on the Erin Express bacchanalia has really ground out any happy feelings I used to have about celebrating the day).  

But the dress is green (and as Lynn pointed out today, wear the green you like!)  And I do like me some green.