Averting a disaster and learning a new skill

As a VikiSews brand ambassador, I am required to post about their patterns once a month on Instagram. I received the Andie dress pattern for free in exchange for a post.

I had two yards of chocolate brown rayon/cotton/modal sweater knit from D&H Fabrics. It's a wonderfully soft, fairly light fabric. I thought it would make a perfect winter knit dress.

 

I made my usual size 36 in VikiSews patterns but I made some substantial changes.

1. The placket is meant to have sew-on snaps. I just left it open as the neckline is not super deep.
2. The pattern is meant to have thumbhole openings. I shortened the sleeve and made a regular coverstitched hem, as I am not a fan of thumbholes.
3. I made my first ever full bicep adjustment, as the last VikiSews pattern I tried was tight in the arms. It worked perfectly using the technique from The Fitting Book (Amazon affiliate link).
4. The waist is meant to be very loose-fitting. I removed 4 inches from the pattern pieces at the waist to curve it in ever so slightly as a body-skimming silhouette looks better on my rectangle frame.
5. I did not have enough yardage to make the dress. I laid out my pieces and cut the length according to the fabric I had. The dress ended up being midi-length.

And then there was the final issue. You might notice a stitching line up the center front. Well, I had a boneheaded moment for the ages.

I shortened the length of the dress because I am only 4'9" and in that process I ended up removing the text that indicates to cut the front on the fold. I usually do not have any issues with this but for whatever reason I completely forgot that the front is supposed to be on the fold and I ended up cutting it into two pieces. I didn't even notice until I went to start sewing the placket that I had two fronts.

Since I did not have enough fabric to make the dress initially I definitely didn't have enough to recut the front. So I got out my serger manual and learned how to do a two-thread flatlock seam on my new serger. I had never used this technique on my old serger because it was too much work to do the setup to make it work. Luckily on my new machine it's a lot easier but it did take some trial and error and lots of samples before I got a good result.

Fortunately I was able to save my front with the flatlock stitch and it appears to be holding up post-washing with no issues.

This dress is so soft and cozy to wear. I love the open polo shirt style and it'll be very easy to layer when it gets colder. I do not think I need another dress like this but I would be open to sewing the pattern again as a top.