Summer of Dresses - New Look 6097 for Reals

Hello all, I'm gonna bore you with another solid dress but hey you get to look at bird sandals again. Taaaaa Daaaaa, it's New Look 6097 as the designer intended.

Despite all the fun playing mad scientist with this pattern, I still wanted a straight skirt with pockets version.  Now I had my doubts about a knit straight skirt and the lower parts of my body intersecting.   It's a lumpy disaster waiting to happen. To negate some of the "craters on the surface of the moon" look I went with a nice stashed dark navy knit. Also helpful was that it wasn't jersey like I thought, but a thinner double knit.  The extra body to the fabric helps skim over some of my problem areas, but a purchase of SPANXS might not be a bad idea.

I call this shot, "Pockets make you smug."

I'm smug cause I got my frog pal in there.

Frog approves of these pockets. He would approve more if there was a candy bar in the other pocket. He might get hungry and need a snack.

Pattern
New Look 6097.  This is a classic case of  "Hate that fabric and don't much care for that version of the pattern."  I also can't look away from the hat that makes no sense with this outfit.  She has buff colored shoes on, why would you pair a black hat with it? New Look stylist, I have so many questions!  However kudos to the drawing next to her that is actually a good representation of the pattern. I'll ignore that the stand appears to be rotating independently from the rest of the dress form. (Don't think about the physics of that or you'll have a mini stroke.)

Fabrics used
Double knit Rayon/lycra with some silk maybe?  This is EOS deep stash so I've long forgotten what Linda carefully marked it as.  I'm 100% sure that it there was some sort of classy fiber in with the rayon and due to the shine I'm gonna say silk.  I probably should take better records.....or buy less fabric....or just continue to make shit up.  I'm pretty sure we all know what option I'm going with.

Pattern changes/alterations 
I started with a size 16/18 combo.
1. Shortened the bodice 2".  Tutorial here for future reference
2. Took in the sleeves 1/2" at the seam.
3. Took in the back bodice 3/8" at the CB seam for a total 3/4" reduction of length to the back waist seam.
4. Took 3/8" off the back skirt waist seam to make it match the bodice.
5. Added 4" of length to the skirt.  I probably chopped off an inch of that when doing the hem so it's a little shorter than cut.
6. Left off the neck facings.
7. Used the coverstitch machine to finish the neckline, sleeve, and hem.  I also used it to stitch along the pocket edges.
8. Took in the waist 3/8" at the side seams after the dress was constructed. There was a little more ease with this fabric than in the green dress. Some of that is due to the navy knit being thicker and therefore pulling the dress down and away from the body. It may have more horizontal stretch too, but I didn't do any scientific test. Someone needs to blind me with some Science...just not literally.

Confessions/Advice
1. I tried to tissue fit the skirt which I should never ever do.  If there is a tissue fitting school I would flunk out of it and have to spend my time turning tricks to earn fabric money.  Tissue fitting made me think the skirt was way too small and I added an 1" to both the front and back side seam.  Then when I sewed the dress together and it was 4" too big.  Good work Heather, way to pattern fit.   So I had to take off all the extra width that was added and then skirt fit just fine.

2. I did try putting in the neckline facing and it turned into the Rosemary's baby of facings.   It made the neckline uncomfortably tight and it would not stop flipping out of the garment. So don't nurture that devil baby facing, put it in the garbage where it belongs. It will hiss at you a little bit but just walk away.

3. This time I did stabilize the neck area with some super nice knit fusible tape I got from Sunni.  First time I've used this and it worked very well. Up with fusible knit tape, down with facings!!!!

Husband Comment
"Feels like it would be soft to wear and comfortable.  Feels like you're wearing nothing at all...nothing at all....nothing at all. Stupid Sexy Flanders."  (I added stupid sexy Flanders because that quote makes me laugh.)

My Final Thoughts
Wore this dress on Tuesday and it was the highlight of my day.  My own offspring was channeling some serious Hell Baby vibes that day so I was super happy to have a comfy outfit on.  The fabric feels very soft and kind of drapes around you when you move.  I also dropped a whole lot of food on myself and the navy color hid it all. Basically I was a mess that day but my dress disguised it from the world.  High five dress, you get MVP of the week.

Summer of Dresses - New Look 6097/Lady Skater Mash-up

Hey parade goers, are you ready for a little ditty?
She did the mash, she did the pattern mash, (the pattern mash).  It was a cutting room smash (she did the mash) It was over in a flash (she did the mash) She did the pattern mash.  Waaaaa Ooooooo.....
Now that I've evilly infected you all with an ear worm let's take a look a the next dress in our parade. 

I threw New Look 6097 and the Lady Skater patterns in a dark drawer, left them unattended, and they made me a pretty baby! 

This was just supposed to be a muslin for the New Look bodice, but then I put the Lady Skater skirt on it just for kicks. The fabric is a super cheap rayon/polyester/lycra jersey, the kind that starts piling almost immediately.  Despite that I find myself reaching for this dress again and again. 

The bodice is constructed according to the New Look directions except that I did away with the neckline facing. Instead the seam allowance was folded under and stitched down with the coverstitch machine The sleeve and skirt hems were finished the same way.  A twin needle would also do the job if you are without a coverstitch machine. If this bodice wasn't supposed to be only a muslin I would have stabilized the neckline with some fusible web.  Lucky for me it doesn't seem to be stretching out of shape.

I only had to take in my bodice side seams 1/4" to get the Lady Skater skirt to fit.  This might vary with different sizes so measure your waist seams and make a suitable adjustment.

The New Look bodice did need a major length adjustment for my short waisted self.  New Look did not provide any shorten/lengthen lines which seems like a major oversight for this type of design.  You don't want to just chop off the pleats at the bottom!  Fortunately my latent pattern drafting brain cells kicked and reminded me how to do it.  I even took pics so everyone gets a How-to.

How to Shorten a Wrap bodice
Step 1
Draw a line perpendicular to the grain line on the upper part of the bodice.  You want it to be above the pleats.  New Look 6097 side seam notch was in a perfect place for this guide line.

Step 2
Mark the amount of length you need to remove by drawing a second guide line parallel to the first guide line.  I needed to remove 2" so the guide lines were 2" apart. You can draw the second line either above or below the first.  Mine is drawn in above.

Step 3
Fold the pattern so the guide line 1 meets guide line 2. Tape the fold down. Now your bodice is shorter but we have a jagged looking neckline.

Step 4
Tape some paper behind the fold in the neckline area. Using a french curve or a hip curve eyeball a new curve for the neckline.  Whatever looks aesthetically pleasing to you is correct.  Some parts of pattern drafting are precise and some are just winging it.  This is a winging it moment. I decided to take away paper on the lower part of the pattern.  My bust sits low so I need less fabric in that location.

Step 5
Cut off the extra paper and then repeat these steps for the other side of the bodice.  Since the back has no pleats I took the easy route and just cut 2" off the bottom. Easy peasy.

If you needed to lengthen a wrap bodice the steps would be almost the same.  Instead of folding the pattern you would slash and spread it to the new length. Tape in some paper and then continue on with Step 4.

One last tweak to the bodice was to take in the bottoms of the sleeves. I overlocked the underarm part of the sleeve so that it was flush with the side seam.  This took care of the bottoms of the sleeve flopping around in an odd manner.  I think the armhole is a little bigger than it needs to be, but this is an easy fix for a RTW look.

It's not as exciting as my last dress but I can wear my new awesome sandals with it.  Tweet Tweet. (You can get some from Modcloth if you're so inclined)

They make me want to do this...

Wheeeeeeeee! Birds!