Out of the blue – Sewoverit Heather Dress

Hi there

I am really bad at getting pictures at this time of year so it has taken me a couple of weeks to get photos of this dress. One day I will work out how to get good indoor pictures using my fairly basic camera, but until then I will just have to make the most of the brief glimpses of sunshine that we get.This week I have the Sewoverit Heather dress to show you – now that it is winter all I want to wear are knit dresses! This winter I am experimenting with alternatives to my usual ‘fit and flare’ style – last time with the looser Helmi dress and now Heather is more form fitting.

I tried on a RTW dress that was similar to this a few months ago and although I liked the style the fit was pretty awful as I am completely different sizes between bust and hip, so I wanted to see if I could make it for myself.

I initially cut a 12 at the bust, 14 at the waist and 16 at the hip. Although the pattern is closely fitted at the bust there is a lot of ease at the waist (6 inches) and I found it quite baggy at the back and front at first. I adjusted the curved seams on the front and back princess seams and a took little off the side seams to reduce width at the waist.I used black and blue ponte from Clothspot for the finished version. The blue came as a lovely gift with my coat fabric over a year ago and is sadly no longer available, but the black was purchased recently and is still available here. I cut the inner pocket pieces from a much thinner jersey to avoid adding bulk at the seams.

The black ponte has very limited stretch and as a result the sleeves are too tight (you can see the drag lines in places) – I reduced the seam allowance as much as possible so they are wearable, but still a bit tighter than I would like.I have worn this dress a couple of times already and (despite tight sleeves) I really like it and I want more! What about one in this pink ponte…?