October Garment of the Month Challenge - Weekender Knit Dress

So, about a month ago myself and 1,000 plus like minded souls signed up for the October Craftsy.com Sew-A-Long. The feature was a cotton knit dress with sweet contrasting trim at the waistline, sleeves and hem. For about 25 bucks they sent you all the fabric to make the dress and access to the class for as long as Craftys.com remains in business, which is assumed a loooooong time.

The class was scheduled to (and did) open on Oct. 16th. They sent an email reminder on the 15th. Luckily, between when my fabric arrived and the time the class opened was only a couple of weeks, so when the weekend rolled around and thus time to work on dress, said fabric could actually be found! Yippeeee!!!!

At the time of construction of the dress, I was not aware of  The Garment of the Month Challenge:

so unfortunately there are no pictures of the process. Here are some pics of the finished product.

Pattern came in 5 sizes. This is size L.

Bodice (hard to see the gathers at the shoulder and at the waistband)

Bottom hem band.

This dress is quite possibly THE most comfortable piece of clothing I own. And, while it went together in a snap, I would not recommend it to a complete beginner. In my review of the workshop, I noted that the directions were thin and they WERE thin. Basic construction techniques were given and a few tips on working with knits but aside from that not much. In the past, much time, money and effort has gone into the sewing of knits so over the months I have learned a ton about them. Why just recently, a lovely paisley knit blouse that was started in mid-summer was tossed in the scrap pile due to mistakes and general crappy sewing.

This particular fabric while uber soft and cuddly was also uber slippery and roll-ly. Unwisely, construction began on the sewing machine and lasted about 5 stitches before off to the Serger. Because of the Serger and a love for pins, I was able to skip MUCH frustrating pressing. I did press all the seams of the finished dress and all came out lovely.

Actually, I will probably be making more of this dress with some modifications or different types of trim or perhaps exactly the same with different fabric. It is THAT comfortable and easy.