Mini Dress

Hello,
I have been busy preparing Christmas celebrations, we made our tree and decorated the house with handmade and store bought crafts. I posted all my handmade here and I am still finishing my Santa, I hope will be completed by Friday.

Well, I managed to finish my November dress in between making the Christmas crafts. The dress was easy to make because I modified the pattern, so I worked with four pieces of patterns instead of ten. I did this because the fabric suggestion is wool knit and I think my medium knit cotton isn't for this type of dress with side panels and pockets. I fear that the pockets will not stay properly.

Before I continue to the dress details and my sewing process, here is my finished dress - simple, comfy and warm :)

For the pattern, I used BurdaStyle mini dress 12/2014-136 size 34 with following modification in the neckband, sleeves and shoulder darts. I also omitted the side panels and pockets.

For the materials, I used 2 yards of medium weight cotton knit, navy blue cotton ribbed knit for the neckband, threads, ballpoint needle and twin needle.

The process was easy, I worked on the pattern first. I laid the front piece and drafted the straight line to cover the hole for the side panel, I did the same for the back piece. So my front and back piece pattern just like a very simple tunic pattern with raglan sleeve.
I change the neckline pieces with one piece straight neckband 14 cm tall.
Also, I lengthen the sleeve until my wrist and lengthen the shoulder darts 4 cm.
Here are the two pictures of the fabrics after cutting, I added 1.5 cm seam allowance in all edges and 3 cm for sleeve and hem allowances.

After I had all fabrics prepared, I sewn the front piece onto the sleeve right sides together and the same for the back piece. Then sewn the shoulder darts.

I continue the process by sewn both sides of the dress, started from the sleeve hem to the hemline right sides together.
I followed this tutorial from Craftstylish and sewn the neckband onto the body right sides together. But my neckband finished without on fold, I left as it is with the allowance folded and sewn 1.5 cm to the inner side. I had the feeling that my ribbed cotton knit fabric is too heavy to folded together.

So, in the final result I can wear with the neckband folded in two and without fold (in this case will cover whole my neck until my jaw) as shown in the picture below.

The last two work were sewing the sleeve hem and hemline 3 cm. 

After all, I am still not so sure about this dress. I like it because very comfy to wear both in day and night. But the dress need something more in the body such as embroidery. I will see and try to add it later, maybe after the holidays.

Without more things to say here are some pictures of the finished dress on me and my dress-form, front - side and back views

This dress is my second garment for MAGAM November challenge, you can see all our makes through magam facebook group,

Happy Sewing!

@Hana