7.09.2010

Cynthia Rowley Knit Dress : Cutting Out

I spent the morning at the farmer's market eating organic hamburgers and berries, listening to great folk music, and being jealous at everyone else's great summer dresses. I wish mine was already done, so let's finally get started.

Today we are cutting out our fabric. I know this is pretty explanitory according to the directions, but here are a few tips that I learned as cutting mine out.

- make sure that your stretch goes width wise (if it only stretches one direction)

-amazingly enough this is my very first time to cut out fabric that needs to match up (such as stripes). This was more difficult than expected. Matching up the sides seams was pretty easy. I just made sure that the knotches on the pattern were at the same point of the stripes on all pattern pieces. The curved yoke, however, was pretty much impossible to figure out and would have taken tons of fabric to get right. As a result I decided to have the stripes on the yoke and waistband go vertical instead of horizontal. I figured that because the yoke and waistband are both interfaced they really arn't supposed to stretch anyway. Hopefully this will make it look interesting. We will see I guess.

here are some photos of my fabric all cut out:

the top pieces (you can see how i matched the stripes)

the skirt and pocket pieces

and the yoke and waistband pieces ( you can see how i made the stripes vertical on these)


Do you guys think this will look good? Do you have any better tips on matching stripes/patterns when cutting out your pieces?

7 comments:

  1. your fabric is darling! I like the idea of reversing the stripes for the neck and waist bands.

    I made this dress two months ago in a royal blue solid. But I had a bit of trouble with the pocket on the zipper side. Ok, it was a disaster! Now my dress is one-pocketed! :)

    I'm looking forward to seeing your insight into that step and maybe ripping and resewing my pocket. Thanks for taking up such a great (and more advanced) project!

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  2. I'm no expert, but I think it will look great. The fabric is so cute!

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  3. I agree, I think the stripes in a different direction will be fun! Love your fabric choice!

    Off to cut! :D

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  4. I agree too - the vertical with the horizontal is darling! I've never cut anything with nap now that I think about it, ha! I guess I'm useless for ya there.

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  5. Hey! I have to say that I love your fabric choice.
    I made this dress a couple of months ago. I made the whole dress and then realized that the pockets were way too heavy for the dress and it did not look good. I got rid of them completely but maybe you could cut them in some light cotton fabric if you really want pockets.
    You also don't need to put in a zipper since the fabric is stretch and I can't even imagine having to sew a zipper to some knit!

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  6. Ya know, I was wondering about the zipper too. I bought one and I'm excited to learn how to install it, but I wasn't sure if it was really necessary with the knit fabric. I DO know that I don't want to find out the hard way that it IS in fact necessary. :)

    SO excited!

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  7. Anonymous13.7.10

    as for cutting the stripes the opposite direction, it is cute, but i'd be concerned about cutting on the cross grain with knit fabric - i know its interfaced, just be really careful not to pull it at all when ironing the interfacing on.

    julie - i appreciate your comments about the pockets and i agree, they'd be too bulky for this type of dress. i bought a couple of maxi dresses a year or so ago and the pockets added such bulk to my hips i couldn't stand it!

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