The Lady Skater Dress
Ahoy!
I never thought I would, but I feel like I’m becoming one of these jersey junkies! I made another jersey dress last week and the whole projects was so rewarding. It was super easy, quick and the fit of the dress is amazing. The fabric was just £1.50 pm. I love jersey!!
I have three belts which go perfectly with the dress:
I used the Lady Skater Dress pattern from Kitschy Coo but I altered the pattern quite a bit. I saw the dress on Daniela and Thea and loved the fit. However, I’m not a big fan of tshirts, tee neckbands and cuffs. I love things to be as lady like as it gets, so I swapped the tshirt dress look for a slash neck (with facing), puff sleeves and a simple hem instead of cuffs. I also cut up the bodice pattern to create the illusion of an hourglass shape (I should do this on every pattern!).
Here are some pictures of the alterations I made:
Raising the neckline and adding a side panel.
Raising and spreading out the sleeve cap to a puff sleeve.
Omitting the cuffs, lenthening the 3/4 sleeves and adding a tiny hem:
It’s not an exaggerated puff sleeve (like the one on my plaid jacket), but it gives the sleeve a very feminine touch. ( I know, my stripe matching is a bit off!)
The fit of the Lady Skater is amazing. To be on the safe side I made the full bust adjustment suggested in the pattern (I never had to do this before!), but the armskye looked rather tight on some of the pictures I saw of the dress. Without the FBA the bodice might have been a tiny bit too tight.
I’m in love with this dress! It’s #20 of my 27 Dresses Challenge and I can see me wear it very often!! 
I’m already dreaming of making more ladylike Lady Skater dresses!
Happy sewing!
♥
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These little guys will be my new helpers when I can’t use pins, e.g. for leather or delicate fabrics. Found at Tiger in Cambridge.
During our very short trip to Cambridge, I also bought these super cute wooden buttons at the market.
Last summer I helped Daniela (
Although I like challenging projects and this pattern seemed to be very very simple, I decided to make the skirt since
I wanted to add piping, so I made some tiny piping myself from the purple denim fabric for the pockets and waistband. You can find a tutorial for doing this
I love the result, although there are a few things that I don’t like about the pattern. First of all, the back pleats aren’t very flattering. And I’ve looked it up online, I’m obviously not the only one seeing it this way. They just make everything back there look much bigger than it is. Furthermore, the spacing of the buttons is not the best. The skirt is gaping open right under the waistband. I had to add a small snap to fix that.
How do I feel about it now? Umm. Yesss. This is more or less the second dress I’ve ever sewn using a sewing machine and the first dress made using a sewing pattern. Considering that it was my first Burdastyle pattern experience, I have to say it’s not too bad. I had no idea what I was doing, but it turned out to be a dress in the end. Pattern matching? Eh, that’s why there are no pictures of the back!
Hey ho!
After I quilted the front and back panels, I cut out the bottom panel and sewed it all together. I glued the seam allowance to the bottom panel and then topstitched along the seams with my edge stitch foot.
I cut out the upper facing and inserted the magnetic bag clasp. You can order these online, they’re quite inexpensive.
Next, I made the straps. 
The drawstring wasn’t quite thick enough, that’s why the straps are quite soft.
All these layers of leather plus the cord did not fit under my machine (although I used the zipper foot), so I decided I had to sew it by hand.
I used some pegs to hold the leather in place, since you can’t use pins – they leave small holes in the leather.
Alrighty, still with me?
(You can see the weird seamlines again)
I sewed the leather facing to the lining and topstitched close to the seam.
I sewed the side seams of the lining. This is how it looks “right side” out.
To make the lining fit the shape of the bag, I boxed the corners:
Instead of chopping them off, I handstitched the corner to the bottom seam.
To avoid another messy patch pocket, I topstitched the inner pocket onto the lining by hand. Took way too much time, but was absolutely worth the trouble.
I used the small holed of the previous topstitching.
Time to sew bag and lining together!!
And yey, this is where the ripping happened.
In the end it wasn’t such a big deal, although it was frustrating. I could fix it with some topstitching.
This part was the most frustrating one, as it took ages and topstitching leather by hand is a really unrewarding job. My fingers hurt for days.
Here a closeup on the strap (and the messed up topstitching on the front pocket).
Done!