Project #6 - brown knit dress - part 1

Pattern morphing
I made this cowl-neck shirt back in 2004. The pattern body is from KwikSew 3003. The neckline came from another KS pattern (3032, I believe). KS 3003 became a TNT pretty quickly. And then one day, I stopped sewing knits.

Last night, I decided to make a knit dress pattern. Several, actually. I'm hoping to have a good dress wardrobe - some that are more office-worthy, others that are more casual. I'm still waiting for the silk organza and charmeuse for the sheath dresses, so I had time to play with some KwikSew patterns.

I settled on KS 2612. I like the slightly flared skirt and T-shirt style. It even has a nicely shaped center back seam. From the measurements on the envelope, it seems I should use size S. On quick comparison with my adjusted KS 3003, it was obvious the dress pattern was going to fall off my shoulders.

Here's the back:
You can see that from the shoulder point down, most of the armhole lines up with size XS. At the side, the pattern swings out to about halfway between XS and S. What you don't see in this picture is that the dress pattern doesn't curve in much at the waist.


Here's the front:
Here, the pattern comes close to XS at the shoulder point, but the curve of the armhole changes because of the FBA (full bust adjustment). Also, notice how at the side, the pattern touches the line for size M.


So, with my work cut out for me, I started some serious morphing. From the waist up, adjusted KS 3003. From the waist down, KS 2612. I also curved the side seam in by 1/2" at the waist on the back pattern piece. And I lengthened the whole dress almost 3" so that it should hit right at my knees. Then I decided I wanted a V-neckline so I used the original KS 3003 for that.


And here's the finished pattern:
In case you're wondering why the front piece looks so wide, I leave usually about an inch or so extra past the CF because it's easier for me to arrange it on top of the fabric fold for cutting.

Now I just have to look through my fabric collection and find an appropriate knit. Not that I have that many choices - I haven't been collecting knits, it's all mostly wovens, namely wool wovens. But I think I can scrounge up something for a quick project.