This is affectionately known as the “yarn dress” at my house and I have worn it for about a half a dozen official type functions this winter. I realized at some point that all of the dresses and things I have made from my Spoonflower fabrics have been very summery – sleeveless tops, summer dresses – and I live in MN, where there was a ridiculous amount of winter this year. So I wanted a dress that was something I could wear with tights and a cardigan. Then Spoonflower introduced “performance knit”, which is a stable but drapey kind of polyester knit. Seemed like a perfect fit. I LOVE this dress.
The fabric: The design started from a photo of my friend Jen’s handspun yarn. The original colors were a little too much for me, so I toned the whole thing down a little bit and made it seamlessly repeat. Then when I set up the 2 yards of fabric to print, I added a photoshop effect to the edge of each yard, creating a kind of border print where the edge dissolves into polkadots. I could just barely squeeze the dress on to 2 yards (it’s good that I am short).
The pattern: The pattern is my favorite t-shirt – Renfrew from Sewaholic – just lengthened to add a skirt. I have another short sleeved one I did this to and I wear that one a lot too. When I do another from this fabric, because it doesn’t stretch much, I would add just a tiny bit over the shoulders/bust width, maybe just going a size up.
Awesome project! Beautiful. If only we could get performance knit back in stock!
Argh. It’s a pretty great fabric. I hope you get it back in stock too.