Mad about stripes!! Lady Skater dress review!
When I was looking for a name for my blog, I narrowed my choices down to 2: Sew U Think U Can and Mad about Stripes. Obviously you know which one won but sometimes I wonder if I should have picked Mad about Stripes! Because let's face it! I have a love affair with stripes!
Sooo, I present to you my latest knock off! The Bailey44 Torres dress. I saw this dress at Anthropologie a while back and vowed to make it when I find the right fabric.
I entered the PR Best Patterns contest last month and finished 2 dresses including this one but failed to write the reviews before the deadline! I got tired and thought! Oh well, next time I'll manage my time better!
I made a few changes to the original Lady Skater pattern. I changed the neckline to a boat neck, reduced the flare on the skirt, shortened the bodice top(it is way too long the way it's drafted). Minor changes but the challenge with this dress was matching the stripes!
Stripe matching isn't for the faint of heart!! But I persevered and it paid off! If you follow me on Instagram, you've seen my progress. This was my first attempt at matching the stripes on the front bodice. It didn't look like the original.
I put it away and woke up in the middle of the night with a solution! You see, I realized that the left top piece was a mirror image of the bottom piece! So I went back, took it down(Did I say I hated undoing seams!!!) and cut new bottom pieces by placing the left top piece right side together over the fabric matching the stripes. Once it's cut, you open it it up and bingo! You have a perfect chevron and all you have to do is pin the stripes, machine baste and serge. Voila!!!
I am quite proud of my stripe matching!! I think it was well worth the pain!!!
I did the same thing in the back and fully lined the dress. The fabric is quite thin so it needed to be lined. I got this ITY knit from Fabrics R'Us in San Jose. I'm glad I bought 4 yards of it because I had to recut most pieces. The original Anthropologie dress was $168. Mine cost me less than $20!
