ROAR !

Pattern: Lady Skater dress by Kitschy Coo

Size: size 3, graded up to a 4 at the waist and hips.

Alterations: shortened the bodice by 2 cm.

Fabric: leopard print jersey, purchased locally.

It's snowing today. I'm home, snuggled against the radiator and I have this dress I made and photographed more than a month ago, and it's about time I blog about it.

I don't know if this pattern needs an introduction, really, but it's the Lady Skater dress by Kitschy Coo, and everyone loves it, me included. After seeing a few gorgeous version out there, I had to give it ago!

I'm so happy with this pattern that I have not only already worn this dress a lot of times, but I've also made a second version, which I'm sure it won't be the last. I mean, knits are so comfy! Once you try them, you can't really live without them.

The pattern instructions for this dress are pretty great as well, and full of tips for newbies or for someone that needs reassurance like me. The only step I didn't like is that instructions have you stitch one shoulder seam, bind the neckline and then stitch the second shoulder. I prefer to bind the neckline in the round, it looks better on the inside and it avoids the risk of a mismatched shoulder seam.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, I shortened the bodice by 2 cm so that the waist seam would fall at my natural waist. It looks like it's still too long in these photos, but I actually went back and took in the side seams at waist level by about 3cm, making it really fitted. Result: it looks perfect now. Maybe the excess ease was giving an optical illusion?

The only other modification I did was the sleeve length; the cap sleeve was too short for my taste and I didn't have enough fabric for the 3/4 length, so I cut the sleeve pieces as long as I could and they turned out in this elbow length, which is coincidentally my favorite in RTW. A very lucky incident!

This dress was the final push I needed to conquer my irrational fear of knits. Not only I'm not afraid anymore, I really want to sew more and more with them. My only problem is that I can't find knit fabric locally, or better, I only find either ugly or expensive knits here. I guess it's because sewing hasn't conquered Italy yet, so there isn't a huge request. If you know any European shops (because shipping from the US costs a fortune and takes forever) that carry cute, cheap reasonably priced knits, please help expand my fabric addiction!

Finally, because it's Black Friday Weekend and I enjoy a good sale even though I don't celebrate Thanksgiving, here are a couple links I stumbled upon that may interest you too:

✄ Craftsy is having a HUGE sale for both classes and craft supplies, like fabric and yarn. This would be the perfect chance for me to enroll in a knitting class for beginners and finally get my act together. Although all the sewing classes are pretty tempting as well...

✄ Papercut Patterns is having 15% off all patterns (through Monday 12/2). I want to try one of their patterns so bad it's not even funny.

✄ Christine Haynes is having 20% off everything in the shop (and she's donating 10% of every sale to the LA Regional Food Bank), using code "thanksgiving" (through Monday 12/2). Do yourself a favor and purchase the beautiful Emery dress pattern.

✄ Grainline Studio has 20% off the entire shop, using the code GIVETHANKS20 (through Monday 12/2).

Happy shopping!