A new dress and another WIP complete

I cannot tell a lie ... I work part-time. Not that this isn't completely obvious considering my obsession with my hobby and with other people's blogs about my hobby. As a result, though, I have Mondays off most of the time. So on Monday I started a new project out of my newest book Sew U: Home Stretch, of Built by Wendy fame. If you live in Canada and are anywhere near Chapters/Indigo/Coles you should go buy this book for the rock-bottom price of $5.99 (oh, yeah, I suppose you could order it online, I never really think of doing that, what can I say, I don't use a cellphone either a.k.a I live in the dark ages).

Of course you should start with the t-shirt pattern because that is where you learn all the skills you will then apply to your other projects ... or you could skip to the dress, because what's more fun than learning on the fly, non? So, yeah, I skipped to the dress, and here is a picture of what I learned.

1. I love my machine and will never criticize it ... but it doesn't love this fabric. Or maybe it does love it because it liked to EAT it. So, all of my seams look like this. What is that, you say? Little, teeny, bits of tissue paper that are left over after feeding all the seams through with tissue paper under them. Hmmm.

 2. My shoulders are narrow, like really narrow! So when I put this dress on for the first time after making it the shoulder seam was down my arms and the little puff on the sleeve was more like an awkwardly placed bicep. I made an extra dart along the top between neckline and shoulder line on both front and back to gather up a little fabric and bring that puff back on to the shoulder.

3. Oh yeah, and sewing with knits is hard. I know, I know, Wendy says it's easy but I kinda think it's hard. Not impossible but challenging when you don't own a serger!

Next week - back to cotton! YAY! Oh knits, I'll be back -- I just need a little time with some fabric that likes to be pressed and folded and cut, oh yeah and sewn!

Meanwhile I have this pile of leftovers to take a look at!

PS My mom's cardigan fit and I didn't ruin the hem!