Closet Core T-Shirt Dress

I sewed another Closet Core T-Shirt, this time as a mild “hack” into a dress!

The story here is that I accidentally bought shmaybe double the amount of cotton modal fabric from Blackbird Fabrics that I had intended to. I’m not entirely sure how that happened, but I had ample fabric left over from the first t-shirt to make a dress. This was my second project with knits!

Pattern prep

I added 10” of length to the pattern, based on another dress I had and liked the length of. This basically entailed cutting on the “lengthen / shorten here” line and taping in 10” of printer paper (I printed the pattern at home).

Fabric prep

I rough cut the fabric into smaller sections to make it more manageable; this way I could cut more precisely on my cutting table (a kitchen island from IKEA) rather than crouching on the floor. You need to be careful of cutting layout when doing this—but given how much fabric I had, I could be a little free with it.

Sewing

Sewing order this time

I did what made sense to me, instead of what was in the instructions:

1. Shoulder seams
2. Side seams
3. Bodice hem
4. Sleeves’ side seams
5. Sleeve hems
6. Attach sleeves
7. Attach neckband

By “what made sense” I mean “left my arch-nemesis, attaching the neckband, til the very last”.

Speaking of neckbands…

The neckband turned out MUCH better this time, but not without a fight. As instructed, I started sewing it to the bodice from the back of the neck. Easy peasy. When I got to the front, I kept ending up with extra neckline fabric, not matter how I stretched and cursed the gods of knitwear. The problem was in how I divided the quarters of the neckband. I either forgot to make notch marks on the neckline—or they’d rubbed off at some point—and I was aligning quarters to the shoulder seams instead of those notch points.

Seam ripped, drew the notch marks, redid it, and it wasn’t so horrible. The way the fabric lays around the neckline doesn’t look totally, 100%, ready-to-wear smooth, but it is FAR better than my first attempt at knitwear. I’m pleased, actually!

One of the great things about becoming more confident with stretchy knits is that…I’m currently pregnant with my first child!! 🐣 Sewing something comfy that I can easily wear both now and postpartum puts my mind at ease on, “how do I sew for a changing body, without wasting time and fabric?” I actually wore this dress to our baby shower; I’m pleasantly surprised by how much better I am handling knits on my second such project, and was proud to be able to wear something I made…in honor of something (someone) else I’m making. 😆

Making something that you can continue to wear or use really feels like a form of conjuring magic, and I felt that big time on this project!