Eva in the Pink

I've made another knit dress...

This is the Eva dress from Your Style Rocks, which is a free pattern when you register on their website.

I loved the style of the dress as soon as I saw it on the website, but it's actually taken me about 2 years to make it up! I eventually found some ponte knit from Spotlight which I decided would fit the bill perfectly. I've made this up for the Dresses contest for the first week of The Monthly Stitch Indie Pattern month.

The pieces are all cut out on the flat, there are no cuts on the fold here! I did however find it a tight fit. I had enough fabric, according to the pattern requirements, but had to play around with the placement to get the dress cut out. At least I'd access to a large format printer so I didn't have to join the dots with the pattern pieces.

The instructions are very brief. There are few images - I think just two to show you how to do the front draped piece, but apart from that, there are none. The pattern recommends adding a bias cut piece of interfacing to the shoulder seams and back neck. It seems very odd to add a bias strip with a knit fabric, so I've used knit interfacing on the neck and added cotton tape to the shoulder seams.

The instructions for the back neck are very confusing. I understood that the back neck facing was meant to be folded in half and attached to the bodice and then stitched to the inside. This was where I found the double knit was the wrong fabric. I couldn't stitch the facing to the inside as it was too thick, so I attached it and left it on the outside. I did have to slightly trim the sleeves to fit having done this.

The front draped piece is double fabric. It has a "lining" which ensures the draped piece keeps it's shape. This is a nice touch and I like it.

The seams are all double stitched. The sleeves I hemmed using the machine, but I hemmed the skirt by hand.

The touch I really like is the pleat on the back. This really adds definition to the back of the dress and adds a lot of shape. It's easy to sew, the back is pleated across and stitched by hand.

The details
 

Fabric:  Raspberry coloured ponte knit (double knit) from Spotlight, April 2014.

Notions:   Thread, interfacing for the neckline and tape for the shoulder seams.

Pattern:  Your Style Rocks Eva dress
First worn:  Here at MOTAT (Museum of Transport and Technology) in Auckland this last weekend. I got a bit carried away with the mirror maze :-)
Changes made:  None as far as I know, unless the back of the neck, but this was due to the lack of instructions.
Recommend?  The dress looks like it does on the tin, which is certainly a good thing in my book, but I would recommend something other than ponte. The knit is great in some ways because it has so much more structure, but for the draping on this dress, it doesn't really work. The cowl neck just seems to fold to one side unfortunately. It is quick to make though.

And an outtake from the museum photos...