I bought this fabric last summer, in a fit of ill-advised retail therapy. I had the idea for this dress in my mind, and couldn’t find the exact fabric I wanted (this ain’t it) and was on the verge of ordering something expensive from far away when I saw this $5/m 100% mixed fibres jersey at Fabricland. Flimsy to the point of being see-through, no body at all, but whatever it was a $7.50 investment in not spending $75.
Then because it was crappy and unsatisfying I just packed it away with my stash.
I’m getting ready for a charity bike rally this summer, and planning to make cycling bibs (long rides need comfortable clothes!). I’m not a big stretchy fabric person so I thought I should practice before I break into the fancy technical fabrics I bought, so I thought “I’ll make that dress.”
Then it occurred to me—I had leftover beige jersey from the leggings I made for my Megumin costume ($5/yard at Fabricland, I bought ½ yard). Maybe I had enough to sort of line it halfway? At least the parts that matter? Doubling the fabric would give it more body too on top of being no longer transparent.
I sketched a pattern onto the fabric with a washable marker, starting with the back piece of a dress I’ve made three times (here's a flowered version and plain black version, I also made it in grey fleece-backed jersey), adjusting the shoulders as I went, and tweaking the front pice to include a dart. Couldn’t find the sleeve piece so I just traced it off a dress, freestyling the cap (this is what I did for the Megumin dress too).
I am so pleased with the result!
If you look too close you’ll see the seams are a bit poor, being just a zigzag (I experimented with the stretchy cam on my Supermatic but it only wants to go backwards?) but overall it looks exactly how I envisioned! I will probably tack down the lining in a few spots to prevent the raw edges rolling, but will totally wear this as-is (when the weather improves). Not bad for about four hours of effort and a total cost of about $12!
