Royal Blue Work Dress: New Look 6909

I recently signed up to be a Contributor for Sew Weekly 2012.  In conjunction with Sew Weekly 2012 second challenge theme 'Accessorize', I made this blue dress.  Read about my Sew Weekly Contribution for this dress here.

The Facts

Fabric: Blue mystery fabric. The local Malaysian fabric stores fondly calls this kind of fabric ‘The Yellow Line’. It has sheen to it, medium weight, and the salesperson said it’s for making trousers. Most probably polyester. Good buy at RM8.80/USD2.75 per yard, 1.75 yards required. I meant to use it to make wearable muslins as it’s half the price of viscose fabric.

Pattern: New Look 6909

Year: 2011

Notions: Basic Zipper, Hook & Eye, Interfacing

Time to complete: I didn’t really count. Most probably at least 15 hours (not including cutting pattern and fabric, I take another average 2 hours to do that).

First worn: Today, 8 Jan 2012 in my garage as the weekend and the garage is when and where the hubby will take my photos

Wear again? Yes! I have already worn it to work the day after.
Total Cost (including pattern): Approximately RM30/USD9.30

To my family and friends who know me well, I am a no frills, non-accessory person who almost likes to wear the same style and weekend outfits as it is always a rush to dress to go out on weekends after getting my 2.5 year-old Little Terror ready. Actually in nature I am also very lazy in primping up myself! :). I make more effort for my workplace outfits though as the job calls for it. This is a really interesting challenge as it reminded me that I have a new mustard bag that I bought during the last week of 2011 that I have yet to use. The zipper and the mustard colour really called out to me………. actually I saw the 70% off sign first. Malaysian readers, it’s a VOIR bag by the way, nett of discount it was RM34.50 / USD10.70. I have never worn mustard before, it’s a first! I used to be really wary of this colour but I think now it’s rather becoming!

I attempted a hand pricked lapped zipper but I think it wasn’t that successful as you can see some whites from the zipper. I learned to make a skirt vent via making this dress.

Pattern Notes: I cut a size 10 for the pattern but I sewed a 1cm seam allowance on the sides instead of the usual 1.5cm, as I am smaller on the top but pear shaped on the bottom. The fit on this dress was quite spot on for me, it’s quite flattering. I also adore the cute collars and bow. The puffed sleeves are awfully cute too. The pockets placement are also quite elegant. I interfaced the bow as someone rightly pointed out in Sewing Pattern Review.com that the bow will be floppy without interfacing (thank you for mentioning that!). I omitted the collar facings in favour of fully lining the dress. The hems were done without the aid of a special blind hem foot, you have to check out this great tutorial if you are not aware a blind hem can be done without a special sewing machine foot. I used to hand stitch my hems but I find this method alleviates the bumps/bubbles problem on the hem.