Red Jersey Sundress

I've had this red jersey in my stash from some time now... I can't remember where I bought it, and that means it is been too long in my stash... I have to be more rational about buying fabric and then not doing nothing with it... Anyways, its day finally arrived. 

I've been wanting a jersey sundress with an elasticated waist for some time... not ideal for my figure, but it this kind of dresses look amazing on petite women I've encountered on the beach, so I did not want to feel excluded, haha...

I used a BurdaStyle magazine pattern without any alteration or hackering. Well, I just shortened it 10 cm or so and placed the elastic higher than it was marked in the pattern, because I wanted it to sit on my waist-waist, no in my low waist as in the picture.

It is a pretty simple pattern to make and the result is good.

Red and White Striped Cotton Coco

 This is just another coco-copycat dress. As I explained in my first one, Tilly's design was an inspiration for me to make my own Coco pattern following Aldrich's book instructions.
It is a wonderful design, I must say, specially with a cotton double sided ponte like this.

This dress has to be made in a jersey fabric, since it is a flat design with no darts, but we do not need any extra ellasticity in the fabric, so cotton is alright, specially thik, heavy cotton is excellent here.

I found this fabric in The fabric Godmother, and it is double sided, striped on the one side, and plain red in the other, so I decided to use this at my advantage by making the sleeves and neck in contrasting plain red.

As for the neck, I first put a funnel neck, by my stylist told me to make some collar positioned over the stripes for a better contrast. I used Tilly's Françoise dress collar, adapted over the dressfrom to this dress' neck cut.

I think it is lovely, really sweet to the skin, lively and becoming, I love it!

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Striped Coco With Gathered Sleeves Modification

I am loosing count of Coco illegal copies in my wardrobe, hehehe... Since I knocked off the first one with my own pattern, this is a non stop race to the infinite number of replicas and modifications a pattern can have. Truth is, I love my jersey short dresses in summer and this is the best pattern one can have for those. 

My inverted waist is discretly hidden, my old age rejuvenated and I can show more or less leg depending on the ocasion. Variations on necks are numberless (we saw one in my last entry), as they are in sleeves or sleevelessness!

This is one of the many possible variations on sleeves.

  I took my short sleeve pattern and modified it following Aldrich's instructions.

For the round neck, I drafted it ovr the dressform with a basting thread, staystitched it in my machine, and applied a tightened folded strip, cut with curvature, right side on right side. Then I turned it towards the inside, and topstitched with the double needle. The result is PRO! This is the best way to finish a jersey t-shirt neck by far.

 

Turquoise Striped Jersey Coco

Another Coco dress! And there is another one coming, I can tell you that!

I  got this wonderful jersey from Stone Fabrics. Bess was so kind to find a matching fabric for sleeves, I thought stripes all over would have been a little too much.

Again I used my knockoff Coco dress pattern, and this time I decided to play a little with the neck band over my dressform.

 I am really happy with the result. It is a comfortable, lively and stylish little dress.

 I love this pattern for jersey dresses, and next time I am thinking about yet another variation.

Here I am wearing it with my favourite shoes at the moment. Pretty Ballerinas Rosario in silver and gold. I cannot stop myself form looking at their dynamic reflections when I walk!

Coco Dress Knockoff

Tilly is an inspiration to us sewers, and her patterns are a success around the world. Specially the Coco Dress, a design for jersey fabric, an easy project for beginners that results in a very versatile, comfortable and becoming dress. 
Inspired by it, I decided to make my own pattern using Aldrich's book and its Close Fitting Bodice Block for Less Flexible Jersey fabrics, pages 164, 165. I already used this pattern in two previous projects: Liberty Wool Dress and the Black Lace Back Dress. Making your own paper patterns might seem arduous work, but it saves you money and time, specially when you use the same block again and again.

I bought the jersey stripped fabric in a Praha shop last summer, but I only bought 1 metre x 1,5 m wide and I could not make the sleeves out of it. I was lucky to have a purple jersey in my stash, and the contrasting sleeves make the dress more lively and fun (Phew!!)
I observed Tilly's Coco closely and tried to imitate the evasé line of the skirt. Parting from the waist of the pattern, I drew an opening line (10 cm at the bottom) and a curved hem line. I also added a boat neck line, which I redid after fitting the actual dress. 

And that's it. Easy peasey! I own no serger, So I zigzaged all the seam allowances and cut them at 0.5 cm, to try to imitate the serger (this is an imitation game, hahaha!)

The dress bottom and sleeve hems were rolled and machine-stitched with a double needle. And the neck as well. I used different width double needles. 0.6 cm for bottom hem and sleeves, 0.4 cm for the neck.
The result is brilliant. I planned to include pockets in contrasting fabric (=sleeves) to complete the dress and although my stylist said no, I still have doubts. What do you think?