Butterick 6207 - Stripe Dress and Burda 7580 Long Cardigan

   Spring is in the air and a cute dress is a much needed item for me.  I wanted a dress that would be a good transition piece and fun to wear.  Enter Mood Fabrics' Navy/Ecru Saint James Ponte Knit, an amazing knit, probably one of the nicest knits I have ever sewn.  I am sorry to say it is sold out in the navy/ecru colorway but  no fear there are several other option: red/navy, ecru/gray, navy/kelly. or take a look at all the color choices

    My pattern for this fabulous knit, Butterick 6207,  which has raglan sleeves, neckband, shaped hem and a fun sleeve detail.  Some changes for this pattern, I eliminated the high-low hemline, the wrong side of the fabric shows on the back longer length and this knit definitely has a wrong size.  I did peg the hemline, add quite a bit of shaping to the middle of the dress and taper the sleeves for a closer fit.  An additional one inch was added to sleeve length, I like my sleeves to hit low on my wrists.  

      I do like to cut my neckline on the bias when using a stripe knit, I feel it just gives another element of interest.  The upper sleeve is cut just a few degrees off straight of grain and then is matched to the lower sleeve in an angle.  I love the detail at the sleeve, which was the hardest part of this dress.  I marked the dot carefully, added some staystitching, clipped to the dot and the sewing of the two pieces was exact.

    A combination of this amazing fabric and fun pattern, make for a great dress, which I feel so good wearing

  Now I mentioned wearing this as a transition piece and a long cardigan came to mind.  A sweater knit was needed for this look, Mood Fabrics' Moonbeam Cotton-Rayon Sweater Knit seemed like a perfect choice and a great color for many seasons.  A simple cardigan was the idea I wanted and went with Burda 7580 for the look.  The only change I made was to add six inches to the cardigan.  My idea was to wear this cardigan with this stripe dress but I think the proportions are off, the cardigan needs to be longer or shorter to wear with the dress.  As you can see, it is the same length. What do you think?

    So a new plan for the cardigan, flare jeans, Frye boots, cute top and fun necklace.  Now that is a look I like

    I did have a grey rayon jersey which I used for the facing to help reduce the bulk and makes for a nice look on the inside.  After all,with a long loose cardigan, you are going to see the inside.

    I did construct the entire cardigan using my serger and coverstitch machine with particular attention to the differential feed to keep the layers nice and smooth   Several test seams were require to get  the settings just right and eliminate any stretching or puckering in the seams. Back view of the cardigan, the bump is the pocket flaps on my jeans!

    My initial plan might not have worked out but I am very pleased with my two new garments.  These will work perfectly as the Missouri weather bounces from 30 to 70 degrees for the next few weeks.

Disclosure - I receive a monthly fabric allowance from Mood Fabrics to make a garment.  These garment are blogged at Mood Sewing Network first and then I will blog here about this garment.