Tags
Babylock, dbp, doublebrushedpoly, eloflex, fabric, Grace, isew, isewmyownclothes, jersey, makersgonnamake, rayon, serger, sewcialist, sewing, sewmystyle, Sewmystyle2018, sunnydress
The Sunny Dress pattern by the Friday Pattern company was the first sew for this year. It is a super simple knit dress with a scalloped hem that I thought could be a nice addition to my wardrobe.
Knits are not something that I stash to often so I didn’t have a huge selection to choose from without some shopping. Plus I wanted to make sure the fabric lended itself to my color selection for my capsule wardrobe plans. While I contemplated my fabric options a lot of people finished their Sunny Dresses and weighed in on the pattern. Based on other reviews, I expected some fit issues. I also wasn’t sure if the rayon jersey I had left over from a #makenine2017 would work on this pattern. After seeing other Sunnies in it, I decided that I would make a wearable muslin out of it to test the fit.
I put together the pdf and traced out the medium top version. I also double checked the arm measurements of the pattern against my own. I have some arms on me and while others were sizing the pattern down, I was worried I was going to need to size up. However they proved to be perfect. In getting ready to cut out the fabric, I cut the pieces out flat instead of on the fold as the rayon jersey wants to move around a lot. I also cut a neck band that was 2″ x 2 6″ that worked perfectly with this fabric.
I read the directions but decided to install the sleeves on the flat instead of on the round. I overlocked the garment together but twin needled the hem. I have a few different sizes in twin needle and I am still working out the optimum combo of fabric, stitch length, and size twin needle to avoid tunneling. For the top I selected the largest twin needle I have as I found the thinner fabrics and smaller twin needles give me some grief to completely ruining my almost finished garment.
I increased my stitch length to 3 and have only the minorest of tunneling on my finished top.
I have the Baby Lock Grace and it has a twin needle setting, but even with this setting I haven’t been able to get rid of the tunneling 100%. I have looked at tutorials on how to correct this and I have yet to make it perfect. As a side note, this machine can not handle a loose bobin. Bad things happen and the angry thread monster appears to eat your garment. (All my twin needle woes just make me want a coverstitch machine more and more)
Any suggestions how I can improve my hem finish?
(This is a Nicole Miller rayon jersey I purchased from Joann Fabrics by the way.)
Now on to the dress. Because the pattern comes in nicely in the waist I thought in dress form the medium would be to tight on my hips and show off my problem areas. So I graded out the pattern from the waist to the large. The pattern unfortunately does not have any waist marking lines, points to lengthen or shorten, or triangles to help you line up the pieces correctly. To make sure I was grading out the right spot, I took the pattern and pinned it to myself to mark my waist line and the fullest parts of my hips. This worked out fairly well and I like the finished fit. I made the dress out of double brushed poly I purchased from Knitpop. I cut the same size neck band out for the dress like I did for the top but it didn’t work out so well. I marked the neck band and attached it to the dress while it was on my dressform. I think this distorted the dress neck a little and the neck band needs redone. I think I am also going to shorten it an inch. This fabric did not like the twin needle for hemming so I went back to a single needle using a stretch stitch. I also used some Eloflex thread I have been experimenting with. Have you seen it yet?
The curved hem and this fabric didn’t lend itself to a smooth finished hem. My hem didn’t offend me to the point of removing it and starting over but I have room for improvement.
This is a super comfortable make and fairly easy to make. With a little more details on the pattern I think anyone could make it. Oh, and it annoyed me immensely that the yardage and notion requirements were not included in the pdf instructions. It is only on the website in the photos sections of the shop so I downloaded it for future reference. (See below)
There are some really gorgeous Sunny Dresses being shared recently and I loved seeing the hacks people came up with. One hack I wouldn’t mind trying is making it just a skirt. This hack would be great to use up some knit fabric if I *cough* accidentally over buy as it wouldn’t take more than a yard of fabric. I was also considering color blocking the pattern but couldn’t finalize a plan for it. If you are following adjustable this year, have you seen any great Sunny pattern hacks?