8 April 2015

Sewing the Coco Dress

Sewing clothes is where I am finding my current groove.
I enjoy the methodical step by step nature of it, the way different pieces come together to make a whole garment and of course that I have something to wear at the end of it. 


I have wanted to try the Coco by Tilly and the Buttons for a while. 
What initially put me off was that it was designed for stretch fabric. I have a basic sewing machine and was daunted about putting some stretchy material through it.


Last weekend I was in Southampton for a friends 21st. Before I caught the train home I quickly popped in to fabric land and found this lovely stretch stripey fabric. It was super cheap and the label helpfully told me nothing about how much lycra it had in it. I figured though that if it went wrong it wouldn't be a huge loss. 


Thankfully both my machine and the fabric held out. This was the quickest dress I have made to date. One afternoon was all it took to cut, pin and sew the dress together with Tilly's helpful instructions and photos. 


After an afternoon of sewing with it, I think I am a convert to sewing with jersey knits. This material is so soft it's like going out in my pyjamas and it wasn't nearly so hard to work through my machine as I thought it would be. 

I am now scheming and dreaming of more things I can make with pretty jersey stripes. I see a wardrobe of Breton tops in my near future....

Friendly reminder about one photo and twenty words tomorrow (the 9th). The premise is easy; pick one photo and try and tell its story in just twenty words, then link back here! It promises to be fun. 

17 comments:

Lea Lacoste said...

so impressed! I've been gathering patterns and fabrics but so scared of that first cut!
I don't know if you know the Deer & Doe patterns but they just released a skirt and a cropped sweater made for jersey, so super cute. I really want to make the Moneta dress by Colette too!

alexa said...

You have made a lovely job of this! Who dares, wins :).

Miss Smith said...

This is just lovely! I've been following Tilly's blog for a while and seen lots of Cocos pop up, and yours has turned out wonderfully. I'm tempted to give it a shot, but am also not sure about working the jersey - I'm not hugely confident on a machine. Looks absolutely fabulous, love it!

Fiona@Staring at the Sea said...

Your dress looks great. There is a good class on Craftsy all about sewing knits on an ordinary sewing machine, rather than with a serger. It includes 5 patterns which makes it excellent value I think. I paid £10 in one of their (frequent!) sales.

ally said...

Looks awesome

Sian said...

Oooh, you just know what I'm going to say about this, don't you? Stripes!! What's not to love? Seriously: it is lovely

Karen said...

I just love this! Years ago there was a company called Stretch and Sew which used knits in their patterns. I did quite a bit with it then. I don't know if they still exist or not, but they had some great tricks for working with knits.

Ruth said...

It looks very lovely and you make a great model!

Miriam said...

Well sone! You look beautiful x

debs14 said...

Love this! Well done, it looks fab, you've made it really well. I visited a new shop in town this morning, (just about to write a blog post about it!) and I saw the Coco pattern there - my eyes naturally drawn to it as it's not often you find a dress pattern named after your dog ;-)

Alison said...

Well done Abi..it looks great! Xx

JO SOWERBY said...

Oh to be slim with trim legs like you Abi. The dress has come out really beautifully and suits you. Pyjamas souind a great next project
Jo xx

Deb @ PaperTurtle said...

How fun! And it looks darling on you, Abi! I haven't sewn clothing in years but I agree - there's something very satisfying about all of those pieces coming together. Well done!

scrappyjacky said...

It looks lovely,Abi.

Kirsty.A said...

It looks lovely. well done

Rachel Brett said...

That looks great Abi! :)

Susanne said...

So cute! Congrats on adding stretchy knits to your sewing repertoire.