An Altered & Polka Dotted Lady Skater

I’ve had this dress pattern by Kitschy Coo in my stash for quite a while and finally got the guts to give it a go. It’s not that the pattern is difficult by any means, I’ve just been putting off my foray into the world of knits. But after a couple successes (Linden and Hemlock) I was ready to give this comfy little day dress a try. Because honestly, I cant get enough of comfy little day dresses. I made quite a few adjustments to the pattern for which you can find all the details below.

So I made several alterations to this pattern. First, I shortened the torso of the bodice by about 2 inches. I already had a feeling I was going to want to do this based on the pattern images and what some other bloggers have said. I made sure to sew the bodice first, try it on, and measure how much I wanted to take off before I put the skirt on.
Next I COMPLETELY changed the skirt. I’m not a huge fan of circle or A-line skirts, so I cut two rectangles at the appropriate length according to the pattern and double the width of the bodice pieces to make a simple gathered skirt.
Then of course I added some side seam pockets (I feel you all know me so well at this point I don’t even need to explain the reasoning for pockets).
I also wanted to add a little peter pan collar which I drafted myself (inspired by Elle’s Day Date Dress above). I LOVE the way this little collar looks – I think it really adds to the dress.
Lastly I nixed the armband pieces in favor of a turned two needle stitch hem.

The fabric I used is this nice sort of dusty blue double knit fabric that I had in my stash. I’m a stash buster-extrodinaire lately! It was almost too thick for this project only because of the gathers. Other than that I like the sturdiness of it.
I painted the polka dots using a wine cork as a stamp and some simple craft paint. Some of you may recall seeing a snap of it on my instagram. I probably could have gotten cleaner looking results with a nicer paint but I wasn’t too stressed on it and I’m very much in a “use what you got” kind of mode. I also kind of like the way the polka dots aren’t completely solid and look a little washed out.I was inspired by Elle’s dress (above) to do the polka dots, but I knew I wanted them to be bigger – partly because of time and partly because I think big polka dots are a little more quirky. Originally I was thinking I would paint the whole dress but as I was going I got the idea to sort of fade out the polka dots toward the bottom and I LOVE how it turned out. This technique was so incredibly easy, and who doesn’t have access to a wine cork (or two or three).

Pattern: Lady Skater by Kitschy Coo
Fabric: Blue double knit from stash
Notions: 1/4″ clear elastic (I didn’t have any clear on hand so I just used white)
Difficulty: Easy
Adjustments: Shorten torso, eliminate armband, add peter pan collar, change circle skirt to gathered (dirndle) skirt, add pockets
Finishes: Serged seams, serged hems turned and double needle stitched
Time: 2 hours?
Sew it again? Possibly. I’d like to try it in a lighter fabric, but probably won’t get around to it again in a while.

Happy Sewing lovelies!

p.s. I’m trying out a new post format today! With all the pictures together and most of the info in one group, instead of all the info interspersed between the pictures. What do you think?