I fell in love with this knit fabric at the Spring Knitting and Stitching show at Olympia. It is more suitable for pyjamas for the under sevens than a daytime dress for an over 70 but it made me laugh and I had to have it.
The peppermint green base does not show up well in this shot but the quirky characters, which called to the infant in me, do. I thought that I had bought only enough to make a top but when I came to cut it out I realised that I had enough for a dress. By this time, having made 5 items from STRETCH, I knew where to go for a reliable pattern. I wanted to try out the dropped shoulder style of the Stella Hoodie but didn't actually want to wear a hood made up in this fabric- so the Frankenstella was born.
I traced the Stella top, added length from the hemline of the top and finished it off with the curved hem of the Frankie tee. This was easy, as you can read in my previous post about creating the Frankie dress, because I had made a separate bottom piece for that dress. I extended the end of the Stella hoodie straight down, marking horizontally the point at which I wanted the side edge of the hem to end.
I then placed the piece I had cut from the Frankie tee at the edge and traced around this, ignoring the part that extended past my vertical line.
All that remained was to decide how to finish the neckline. I went for facings rather than a neckband and made these by measuring and marking 4 cm around the neck of the front and back bodice, then tracing the result for the facing pattern.
With hindsight I would have made a narrower facing of only 2.5 cm. I understitched the facings after clipping and trimming the curve so that they lay flat and then zig-zag stitch round the neckline- no chance of them popping out from the neck!
The result I have mixed feelings about.
I did not check the sleeve length and I feel they are too long, but not if I double the cuffs back so I will leave them as they are. However there are issues on which I should like some opinions.
I think that I should have made the dress a bit shorter, maybe the length that raising my arms achieves. I also considered putting elastic in a casing around the waist to get a blouson effect. Below I have achieved this with a belt. Does the curved hem make it look too much like a nightgown and should I shorten it by cutting the hem straight across?
