Sewing on a whim: New Look 6968

So all this talk of fabric stashes, and whether we'll use them in our lifetimes, whether we have the space for them, whether we find them overwhelming and so on has overlooked one of the best things about having a large and varied fabric collection: the ability to sew something on a whim without the need to go out to the fabric store.

I have finished sewing my March Burda project but I am trying to find the right trim to finish it, so it's still clogging up my sewing to do list.  But last week when I was cleaning up the fabric shelves a bright pink and yellow ikat print cotton sateen jumped out and literally landed at my feet.  Since we also had a night out with some of my husband's work colleagues at a Mexican restaurant in the city on Friday night it seemed like the perfect reason to sew up a dress that was very much not on my to do list just because.  Luckily I keep a number of invisible zips in basic colours in the stash too, so  I was able to whip this dress out very quickly.  I used New Look 6968, which I've made twice before (here and here) and is very much one of my favourite patterns because it fits my pear shape and sway back wonderfully with very minimal pattern alterations:

I did try to avoid the dreaded "headlight" effect that occurs on certain prints, but even though I made sure to place the point of the bust darts in the dark pink coloured area, I still ended up with two of the circular patterns front and centre, albeit a little lower than where the girls actually are:

Oh well, I can certainly live with it because as you've all said before no one should be looking in that so closely anyway, plus it's likely only us sewists would notice such a thing anyway.  You can see from the side view how closely the dress hugs the hollow of my lower back:

I chose to line only the bodice with a white cotton voile to avoid having to use facings at the neckline, because the fabric is thick enough not to require a skirt lining. Even though the skirt is not too tightly fitted, the skirt has a centred vent which looks neat and gives enough walking space:

Clearly I didn't pay enough attention to pattern matching at the back, but the print is so busy that it's not that noticeable that it's slightly off.

Admittedly this fabric was not a long term stash resident - I bought it in October last year from Spotlight during one of their frequent sales but it was handy having it in the stash because in the space of half a day I had a new dress to wear out.  At dinner  quite a few people remarked on my dress which is always a good sign of a winner, so I can guarantee that you'll see this dress again sometime in the future.

And now on to finishing my March Burda project.  I went to Spotlight this morning because they are having a 30% off storewide sale and didn't buy any fabrics at all but I did get some interfacing, some threads and zippers, several trims and a trolley bag for my sewing machine in readiness for the next ASG sewing day.