Whoop, whoop! I can’t believe it – dress #5 of my 27 Dresses Challenge is finished already, but it took longer than expected.

It’s a sleeveless “I call it summer-in-the-city” jersey dress with cascading pleats in the front and an asymmetrical hemline. Let the pictures speak (unfortunately I forget to take one from the back, because it looks quite pretty):

I used the #144 Burdastyle pattern of the February 2013 issue (it’s the one on the cover). I changed the pattern a little (of course!) to make it look more fun.

The original was a bit too long for my taste and the awesome fabric I found needed something more edgy. I shortened the hemline and cut the pattern to an asymmetrical hemline (I’ll explain how to do that in an extra post!).

When I saw the fabric it was love at first sight. I got it in my (newly) favourite fabric store near Walthamstow Central (London). The print is crazy! Basically, it’s full of fun phrases that just don’t make any sense (the part I like most 😉 ).

“Trust me Johnny I’m the superman” is definitely one of my favorites.

It was my first time sewing with very elastic jersey. The elastic part was not that bad at all. My sewing machine has a pretty good variety of stretch stiches and I didn’t have any problems with handling the stretch. What was bugging me all day was the rubberised print. Not the print itself (which is awe-some!), but the rubber part of the letters. My machine’s feed dog and presser foot couldn’t really handle the rubbery parts of the fabric. The fabric would permanently get caught and I had to start all over again. Some of the seams (ride sides together) were fine, but everytime I had to sew right sides facing up it almost drove me crazy. In the end I had to handstitch the hem. I wish it would look better, but there was no way I could have done it with the machine.

Lots of aggression had to be repressed to keep me from burning that fabric. Seriously. I could have been done maaany hours earlier.

However, in the end it was worth the trouble. The dress fits snugly and beautifully and I can’t wait for the sun to come out.

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I issued a challenge to myself (we all love challenges, don’t we?). Well, it isn’t one of those 30-day-challenges that one sees everywhere these days. Although I really like those – there’s an end in sight. 

I actually wish it would be a 30-day-challenge, because at the end of it I’ve promised myself to treat me with an overlock sewing machine. An overlock! I wanted to have one for aaaaages, but they’re quite expensive and I think someone who only sews for fun should really think about whether they reaaally need one or not. I’m at a stage where I’ve been sewing for quite a while but I’ve only more or less recently started with sewing proper garments. So I’m fine with bias binding or zig-zag stitching my seams to finish them. For now.

But I really want to have an overlock someday to have neatly finished, professional looking clothes. This is why I will allow myself to buy one when I actually deserve it. And I deserve the right to buy one (hopefully I’ll have the money then) when I’ve finished 27 dresses.

Well, garments. It probably won’t be just dresses but it has to be garments sewn from scratch. Yep, refashioning and upcycling by adding and cutting off tiny bits obviously doesn’t count. This would be too easy. The challenge will only be suspended in the unlikely event of me winning an incredibly high amount of money or someone donating an overlock sewing machine to me (which obviously will not keep me from sewing 27 dresses).

For some extra motivation I’ll count the two dresses I sewed in the past months as  #1 and #2:

This one is not the first dress I’ve sewn, but the first one I sewed for myself. It’s made from a Burdastyle Magazine pattern (June 2012, #129) and was originally a little black dress. For the award presentation ceremony of the boyfriend I needed something suit-like that wasn’t a suit and I had this wonderful lightweight fabric anyway. I also have tons of matching belts to make it look more casual if I need to.

I especially like the back.(The creme-coloured top doesn’t belong to the dress, it’s just something the Judy likes to wear.)

Here’s #2. This dress will probably look familiar to some of you. I made it for Christmas and already wrote about it a few weeks ago:

Anyone else yearning for a serger/an overlock? You’re very welcome to the challenge. Would be fun to have some more people sewing like craaazy and ending up with 27 dresses in the end. Just let me know in the comments!

Highly motivated I will now go on finishing some garments I’ve started lately (Shorts coming up! among other things).

Stay tuned! x