Made By A Fabricista: Purple Crepe Knit

Well, hello again! This marks my 3rd Fabricista blog. I’ve completed a spring and summer look for the last two blogs. So, since summer is ending and fall is quickly approaching, I decided to make a pattern that could be worn in cooler weather. I’ve been wanting to make Vogue pattern V8825. This pattern is a tunic dress and pants. I made the dress. What I love about this pattern is the sleeves! The sleeves are a bell shape but gather to fit into a barrel cuff. The dress has a short and long version. I chose the longer one. I am always cold, so this length is what works best for me.

The pattern calls for two-way stretch knits: rayon, spandex, cotton spandex, or wool spandex. I chose a deep purple, crepe double knit. The color is gorgeous! It reminded me of an eggplant. This is a 4-way stretch knit but it still worked. It is just like it sounds. A knit fabric with a crepe texture on one side and a smooth texture on the other. I believe the smooth side was the right side, lol? But I chose to use the crepe side as the right side. The crepe double knit is more suited for the colder months. I didn’t want anything too thin.

This pattern had 7 pieces. The less the better for me, lol! The sleeves have two pieces reminiscent of a baseball jacket. That was different and I liked it! The front bodice pieces extend into a collar. A two-in-one pattern piece! The front bodice pieces have some pleating and the back bodice pieces have a dart. The skirt pieces also have darts in the back. This was a very easy pattern.

What I didn’t like was the tie. Normally, you sew your tie pieces together and it just makes one long piece to tie around your waist. This one, however, bastes one half of the tie onto each front bodice side. That made the seam a little bulky in that area and you end up with two long ties on each side. So, if I make this again, I will most likely just sew the tie pieces together so I can leave it off if I choose to. One adjustment that I did make was the cuffs. They were not snug enough as is. When I put them on they slid over my hands and I had to keep adjusting them. So, I took off about 1 inch off of both and that made them fit snuggly and stay in place.

I enjoyed sewing this pattern and look forward to my next Fabric Mart make! Let me know what you think in the comments.

Until next time…

ADRIA SHANELLE | @AdriaShanelle