Frankenstella

It's a Stella Hoodie- but not as we know it.  Yes, I am continuing my love affair with Tilly & The Buttons patterns in her new book STRETCH.
I fell in love with this knit fabric at the Spring Knitting and Stitching show at Olympia.  It is more suitable for pyjamas for the under sevens than a daytime dress for an over 70  but it made me laugh and I had to have it.  

The peppermint green base does not show up well in this shot but the quirky characters, which called to the infant in me, do. I thought that I had bought only enough to make a top but when I came to cut it out I realised that I had enough for a dress.  By this time, having made 5 items from STRETCH, I knew where to go for a reliable pattern.  I wanted to try out the dropped shoulder style of the Stella Hoodie but didn't actually want to wear a hood made up in this fabric- so the Frankenstella was born.

I traced the Stella top, added length from the hemline of the top  and finished it off with the curved hem of the Frankie tee.  This was easy, as you can read in my previous post about creating the Frankie dress,  because I had made a separate bottom piece for that dress.  I extended the end of the Stella hoodie straight down, marking horizontally the point at which I wanted the side edge of the hem to end.

I then placed the piece I had cut from the Frankie tee at the edge and traced around this, ignoring the part that extended past my vertical line.

All that remained was to decide how to finish the neckline.  I went for facings rather than a neckband and made these by measuring and marking 4 cm around the neck of the front and back bodice, then tracing the result for the facing pattern.

With hindsight I would have made a narrower facing of only 2.5 cm.  I understitched the facings after clipping and trimming the curve so that they lay flat and then zig-zag stitch round the neckline- no chance of them popping out from the neck!
The result I have mixed feelings about.

 I did not check the sleeve length and I feel they are too long, but not if I double the cuffs back so I will leave them as they are.  However there are issues on which I should like some opinions.

I  think that I should have made the dress a bit shorter, maybe the length that raising my arms achieves.  I also considered putting elastic in a casing around the waist to get a blouson effect.  Below I have achieved this with a belt. Does the curved hem make it look too much like a nightgown and should I shorten it by cutting the hem straight across?

What do you think?  Should I make it shorter or should I add elastic around the waist or should I leave it as it is?  Please leave a comment below to help me decide.

Tilly & The Buttons Frankie Tee becomes a Frankie Dress

Ever since I got my copy of Tilly's new book STRETCH I have been sewing like one possessed.  I highly recommend this book both for the clear explanation of techniques and the patterns that come with it.  I used to be afraid of jersey knits but no more!  I have a Bibi skirt and two Freya tops now, one with the mock roll neck and one with a modified cowl neck.  I was going to make the Stella Hoodie dress next but then the British weather turned from Arctic to Tropical and I decided to make a Frankie tee but as a dress.

This is so easy to do and probably the method requires no explanation but I am going to give one in any case.

Cut across the Lengthen or Shorten Here line on the pattern. Since the Frankie pattern is cut on  a straight centre back and centre front fold line all you need to do is place a sheet of appropriate paper  to align with that fold line as a continuation from the Lengthen or Shorten line.

Decide how much longer you require the tee shirt to be to turn it into a dress and place the bottom piece of the pattern at the desired length, remembering that the pattern includes a 2 cm hem allowance.  You will need to create a gentle flare line between the severed patterns pieces.  I went for a flare of 1 inch (this will give a total of 4 inches extra width to the dress at the hem) and positioned the bottom pattern piece 1 inch in from the centre fold line.

I then drew a straight line between the bottom of the side seam of the top part to the bottom edge of the side seam of the lower part.

And there is your amended pattern.  Since the front and back pieces of the Frankie Tee are the same from below the lengthen and shorten line, I only had to do this with one piece and carefully removed the dress bottom taped to the back bodice piece and placed it over the front bodice of the Tee to cut that piece.  Below you can see the difference between an original pattern piece and the amended one.

 

And now some more views of the completed dress.

I cut a size 3 (if I was doing the top only I would do a size 2) as I do not know what is the composition of the fabric, which has been in my stash for years so I am pleased to do some stash busting, but it was synthetic and I wanted a loose cut to allow air to circulate in the summer  but also that could take a close fitting polo neck (cue the Freya) in the colder weather.  I added 47 cm in length to the pattern.  It took 2 metres of  160 cm wide fabric for this dress in the long sleeve version.  I hope this helps in estimating how much fabric you would need if you wanted to make this pattern into a dress.

Finally a thank you to the Sun for shining.  It makes the flowers look glorious.