Polka dot Dress with Ruffle Shoulder

Hello,
We are having crazy weather lately, from hot humid, foggy to cold. And not enough dealing with that, I got sick with cough allergies for some weeks 😢
But luckily I still sew some small garments for my son and finished this polka dot dress. This dress is my first based on Casual Sweet Clothes - Favourite Pieces For Everyday sewing book by Noriko Sasahara that I bought during my visit to Singapore in October last year. I also bought some fabrics, patterns and Burdastyle magazine, you can find them in my old IG post, here.

Material needed :
2 yards of polka dot cotton in light green colour, invisible zipper, fusible interfacing and thread.
Pattern:
Dress A with ruffle shoulder detail size S with following adjustment,

• I reduced the middle center front and back 1 cm because the dress is a little bit too loose.
• Lowered the CF neckline 5.5 cm and drew a new line of the front neckline.
• Raised the ruffle placement 2 cm and trimmed the ruffle at the shoulder 3 cm down to the end 1/2 cm (hope this explanation makes sense).
• I used 1.5 cm seam allowances in all edges and 3 cm hem allowance.

I actually like the instructions from this book, it is well explained with easy step by step to follow. Firstly I sew the middle front and back pieces right sides together and then gather the ruffles before attached to the bodice. I decided to raised the ruffle placement because it looks to me it doesn't gather enough. Also, I trimmed the ruffle at the shoulder 3 cm down to end 1/2 cm finished with rolled hemmed stitch. I did that because the original ruffles are too big for my liking.

After that, I sewn the front and back sides right sides together and attached it to the middle bodice.
As shown below, the neckline was too high for my usual style. So, I reduced 5.5 cm at the CF and drew a new line of the neckline. I carefully cut it and make a new facings. Fused the fusible interfacing on both front and back neckline facings and also fused on both armhole facings.

Before I attached the neckline and armhole facings, I fused fusible tape on the wrong side of CB and sewn the invisible zipper.
Then, sewn the front and back neckline facings right sides together and attached it to the bodice, clipped the curve areas and did the same for armholes facings. Turned all the facing inside and hand sewn some parts for the facings to stayed in place.
Here is the final look of the back side. Well, I am happy with it 😊

And the last work was sew the hem allowance 3 cm, the original pattern suggested for 2.5 cm but I used 3 cm and I did that for almost all me-made dresses.
Picture below shows the different look on the original neckline and my version. I know that some people look good on high neckline but not me.

I liked the final dress, lovely fit and it will be perfect to wear in summer without feeling too tight or too loose. For sure I will be making another one later but without ruffle and will make little tweak at the back. You can see in the last picture below that the back has little crumple, I am going to make better fitting in the future.

The ruffle shoulder looks so lovely and girly, isn't it ?

And here are more pictures of the dress and detail, front - side - back and hemline.

Thank you for reading, wishing you a happy weekend and happy sewing!
Love,

Hana, @velvetribbon_sew

Poncho Hoodie And Elastic Slim Pants

Hello,
I finished my February garments on time but it takes a little bit longer to publish in the blog. I wanted to make this outfit for so long and glad I did it. The poncho hoodie is based on BurdaStyle pattern 11/2016 -126B size 36, I didn't make modification on the pattern except shorten the sleeves length 5 cm, shorten the hem line 5 cm and made the high low hem at the back not so deep - in this case I trimmed the back hemline again 3 cm. I used 1.5 cm seam allowances in all edges and sleeve and hem allowances as well.
The slim elastic pants is based on Simplicity 1314 pants A - Cynthia Rowley size 10 (36) with some adjustments, I reduced the sides and inner pants 2 cm and shorten the length 6 cm because I am small 😀

For the poncho hoodie, I used 2 yards of sweatshirt fleece fabric in maroon colour and for the pants, I used 1.75 yards of double knit fabric in grey colour.

The process of sewing the poncho hoodie taking it's time because I never sew a hoodie before but BurdaStyle explained easily through their sewing course and glad I finished and liked the result. I didn't use serger to finish the raw edge because my fabric is knit that won't fray. And surprisingly my normal sewing machine needle works nicely, I used needle number 14 because the fabric is very thick. Besides sewing the hoodie hat, the nicest part of sewing this poncho was attaching the loops and the toggles.

The process of sewing the pants was easy and fast because it came in three pieces of patterns and elastic. No pocket or front fly. So, I just sew the pieces using blue tip needle, sew the waistband and insert the elastic on it, finished with top stitched the waistband at the lower side of the elastic using twin needle . And the last part was sew the hemline 2.5 cm using twin needle. I am done 😀

Here are the closer look of the poncho hoodie, front - back views and the details

I loved the pants, it is very comfy and easy to wear. Nothing beat elastic pants! And off course I want to make more of this but I will add the pockets and front fly. Also, I am curious to make more modification, we will see...
Here is the details of the finished pants, hope you can spot my sewing using the twin needle at the lower waistband and hemline.

And as usual, picture of me wearing the outfit 😁

And the last picture of the whole outfit on me, front, side and back views.

Thank you for spending your time reading today's post, hope you like it as much as I do. I will be posting this outfit in Magam Challenge - Facebook for February garments with the theme "fit and finish" and I think this outfit is truly fit my daily wear 😀

Happy sewing!

Love, @hana