Embracing fall: step 2--Plaid!

Sorry this took so long. This fabric was way more difficult to work with than I expected! I don't remember ever wearing a jumper, though I'm guessing my mom must have put me in some when I was little. I decided there could be no better way to embrace fall than to make a plaid jumper!

Though this was a simple pattern, it was the first piece of clothing I designed myself. I was inspired by the Zoe dress from Burda Style, and I used the Coffee Date Dress as a starting point for the bodice. I made the front darts smaller and added side bust darts, and I lengthened it/curved it out. Then, the bottom was just a really wide rectangle that I pleated the width of the plaid at each dart.

I also used Burda Style's tutorial on how to insert an all in one facing. When I made my coffee date dress, I printed the pattern directions and didn't feel like looking up the tutorial, so I just ignored it. It actually worked really well! Here is a picture series of that part, and HERE is a link to the tutorial. The basic idea is that you sew everything except the straps together, and then you flip one of them inside out and feed it through the other to sew. I was confused about step 5 when I first read it--you need to turn the front strap right side out then feed it through the back strap that is wrong side out. It all made sense once I actually started doing it.

Sewing the seams except the top of the strap

Turning the front strap rightside out

The finished product

The fabric was incredibly skewed, and I did the best I could to fix it and line everything up properly. Because the plaid is so wide, the front underbust darts hide one of the light gray lines and not the other, which looks a little funny. Everything else worked out fine, though. The "invisible" zipper is not so invisible. I always seem to have this problem, no matter how close I sew the seam to the zipper. If anyone has any tips on how to fix this, let me know!