Cutting splashy prints

Last month I bought a very large, bold print to make Burda 015-05-2010, a simple pullover knit dress.

I knew I’d have to be careful about how I placed the print so I bought a bit of extra yardage – 2m instead of the 1.5 the pattern called for. My first thought was to place the centre of the flowers on my top half, offset to one side (but hopefully avoiding the bust point!) but I wondered if other ways could work. Here are some variations I found on Polyvore

The ones with the motif at waist level appeal but probably wouldn’t work with the waist seam on this pattern, so I decided to stick with my original idea. Let’s hope it works out.

I wanted to keep the skirt of the dress fairly plain to contrast with the top. After a bit of fiddling I came up with this layout

I’m using the stripes in the pattern at the top of the skirt piece but the bottom is plain navy blue. There is enough room to cut the skirt piece out twice like that. The two top pieces obviously have to be cut on the fold so I shall be cutting it like this:

I’m currently letting the fabric relax before getting the shears out. I haven’t tried that before, but it’s recommended in a book on sewing with knits I got recently and it certainly can’t hurt. I’ve been caught before by knits shrinking after cutting. How much this one will manage to relax when laid on carpet remains to be seen.

I can’t start sewing today because I haven’t got the right notions yet. As ever with Burda the pattern calls for something called Vilene Bias Tape which I have never seen in a shop. I’m hoping that strips of iron-on knit interfacing will do instead, but I do need to buy some elastic for the waist, so there will have to be a trip to the John Lewis haberdashery department next week. Such hardship!

2 thoughts on “Cutting splashy prints”

  1. What a wonderful fabric! The print and the colours are very striking. I think it’s a really good idea to keep the bottom half relatively simple, as you have decided. I can’t wait to see this.

    I started to write a post about a lycra dress I made almost two weeks ago, but have been too lazy to finish it. Actually it was that DKNY dress with the side tucks (the one I was researching when I came across your blog). Cutting out knits and lycra is so fiddly. Yuk. I didn’t know about resting knits but I’ll bear it in mind in future.

    I see you haven’t been sewing for a terribly long time. I’m impressed with how much you’ve learnt in such a short space of time.

    And now I’ll go, otherwise I’ll be taking over and you may ban me from leaving comments! I’ll be checking in to see how your dress goes.

  2. You ought to do podcasts of your dressing making so that we all learn to sew. I am deadly jealous of you as I am hopeless at it. You don’t know how to crochet do you? That’s something else I am hopeless at. I wanted to embellish a plain top with some crochet flowers but end ed up with something that looked like a net shopping bag lol. Bit like the skinny scarf I am trying to knit. I am so good at making holes!!!!!!! Will we be seeing your designs on the catwalk next to Viv Westwood????? Take Care

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