The Penny Pinafore - a New Pattern from Kitschy Coo

When it rains it pours and December seems to be the month of me pimping new patterns that I like.  Wait, maybe I do that all the time. It's my evil side plot to make you all pattern junkies like me. Muhaaaa!

Today I'm pretty excited to show you the new Penny Pinafore from Kitschy Coo.  I practically lived in the Lady Skater pattern this summer and the thought of having another easy dress pattern made me dance with joy. Ahhh knit dresses, you are my favorite quick fix project.

The penny pinafore has princess line seams so you can do fun color/print blocking like this.

Houndstooth and snow boots, what all the cool kids are wearing.  

 Or you can do a bright solid with contrast trim for a vaguely Star Trek feel.

Where's my gold rick rack?

Pattern
Penny Pinafore from Kitschy Coo.  A princess line tunic/dress with 3 lengths tunic, mini dress, and knee length.  Also comes with 3 sleeve lengths just like the lady skater.

Fabrics used
Version one full length - Rayon ponte in black and hounds tooth.
Version two mini length - Wool jersey in magenta and pleather collar/cuffs.
All from stash.....can I get an Amen?

Pattern changes/alterations
You might need to make a few tweaks to get the princess lines to fit your individual frame.  Personally I only had to make one!
1. I started with a blended size 5/6 and ended up taking about an 1" out of the princess line seam at the upper back. Because the pattern has plenty of flare around the hips I might downsize the back to just a size 5 next time.

Confessions/Advice
Let's just talk about sewing pleather in a knit situation shall we.
1. Don't try to sew it right side up on your serger.  Your seger will tell you, "I'm not on board with your whole faux rocker aesthetic. You can shove your pleather were the sun don't shine."  You can serge it with the flannely wrong side up but the tension is gonna be a little wonky.

2. I did most of the pleather insertion on my regular machine using the zig-zag stitch.  To counter act the drag of the pleather I put tissue pattern on top and ripped it off after the seam was done.  My main problem here was that the ball point needle was skipping stitches so I switched to a denim needle.  This did cut some holes in my wool jersey, ugh, so knit seam tape was fused to the SA to try and stabilize the fabric.

3. My ball point needle worked fine edgestitching the neckline with a straight stitch.  Here I taped some tissue paper to the bed of my sewing machine to help ease the pleather along.

4.  I was able to get the mini length version out of a 60" 2 yard cut of fabric.  While I made both of my versions from stable knits, the testing group made several out of drapy knits.  All of them looked great.

Husband Comment
My husband only saw the muslin version which was 3 mismatch knit prints, however he LOVED IT.  He mentioned the princess line seams at least 3 times. He thinks they show off my girlie curves.

My Final Thoughts
As far as I'm concerned this is another hit from Kitshy Coo. Once you've got your fitting tweaks finalized, the dress will sew up in about 2 hours. I want MOAR and new tights to go with them.  Maybe some boots too.  Santa, bring me a 5 lb box of money....think of all the fabric I haven't bought.