Knit dress - SWAP Item 3

I wasn't very happy with this dress when I'd finished it and have had it hung in the sewing room for weeks, just staring at me. I had resolved to just chuck it out and make something different and was trying to decide what to make. It kept staring at me though and I do hate to be beaten by things. So I took it over to mum's today for our weekend sewing afternoon and she critiqued it and pinned out the areas that seemed to be badly fitted.

The back seam was wonky; the fabric had stretched out when I'd laid it out to cut it and had got further stretched when I sewed it and was very rippled. The neckline stood out at the back. The walking vent wouldn't lie down but flared out on one side. Mum pinned out the excess down the back seam and, because its a very stretchy jersey, was able to get rid of the whole of the stretched out portion without making the dress too small. In fact we achieved the sleek and close fitted silhouette that I prefer. The walking vent was reduced to about three inches, which was the minimum possible for comfortable walking.

I had originally bound the edges of the armholes and neckline with a knit binding. However, when we took part of the binding off to sort out the back seam it became obvious that the binding was too heavy for the dress fabric and was pulling it out of shape. I took the binding off and overlocked the raw edges of the garment, then turned the edges to the inside and topstitched them into place. A good press and the dress looked a thousand times better. I am now really pleased with the dress and finally feel it looks the way I envisaged it. So its been put back into the SWAP.

I need to check on the completed items, but I think I've got just one item left to make and am planning a sleeveless top with a neck band and front gathers.