Tiramisu Knit Dress - Review

Tiramisu dress, with pockets!

Tiramisu dress, flattering midriff

 

Belted Tira - I swear my lips are not neon!

Belted Tira - real color is deeper...

The Facts 

Pattern: SewingCake 0144 - Tiramisu Knit Dress
Year: c. 2012
Fabric: Used 1.6 yards (size 35D) of Raspberry Ponte di Roma, 60% Poly, 34% Rayon and lycra, medium weight. I machine wash and dry it, can see a little piling but it didn't change the fit.
Notions:
- Ball point needle #70/09,
- Stay tape for shoulders seams,
- Fusible webbing for hemming.
Stitches:
- Basting : #1 Strait stich with length 5.0, Satin foot B
- Construction : #7 Stem stitch, Satin foot B
- Top-sticthing : #6 Strait Stretch stich, Blind Hem foot D at 1/8 in.
- Finishing : #16 Overcast Stretch, Overcasting foot C, cut SA at 1/4 in.
- Hemming : #7 Stem stitch, Blind Hem foot D
Time to complete: maybe 9-10 hours (with tracing, cutting, sewing, learning curve of a new sewing machine and lots of sewing knits 101) Maybe 5h for the next one?
First worn: March 2013.
Wear again? YES! I already did! 

Total Cost: about 25$ for 1.6m of fabric, stay tape, webbing and thread.

The Sewalong Review

Look ma, no gap! (before hemming)

My first sewalong : I loved it! It was from January 8 to 18th 2013. I did not finish in time due to a broken sewing machine foot and some procrastination during the hemming stage...

The format (30 min a day) was perfect for my busy mommy lifestyle of night sewing bursts! Of course, it never took me only 30 min per day ; I'm a perfectionist over planner! But I learned a lot in the process ; it was my first time sewing knits. I am hooked now!

Steph C was very generous of her time and comments. She is good to help, guide beginner sewers and is funny too! The flicker group was awesome ; so much inspiration, help, kind comments! It was like having girlfriends come over everyday to chat and sew the same project! My first sewalong, but definitely not my last! :D

Link to Etsy shop

The Pattern Review

Pattern Description: Tiramisu: a knit dress with a surplice front, underbust gathers and cut-on sleeves, midriff section and half-circle skirt with in-seam pockets. The pattern includes optional stripes placement guide, cup sizing A-D and bust alteration line.
 
Pattern Sizing: Ingenious way to choose you size ; by measurements (no arbitrary numbers here!), cup size and joining the dots for the midriff. I used :

• Bodice=35D. 
• Midriff=35 at top to 32.5 at waist. 
• Skirt=32.5 with 25 hem.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Yes!

Were the instructions easy to follow? The instruction were easy but I loved having the sewalong group for reassurance and variation of techniques by StephC...

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? I love the visual of the pattern instructions ; so clear and simple. I still wish pattern instructions in general would come on Letter sized paper (I have a small desk to sew!), but those were the best I used so far (I had done only patterns from the big 4 before...)

Fabric Used: 1.6 yards of Solid, Raspberry Ponte di Roma, 60% Poly, 34% Rayon and lycra, medium weight.

twirling factor (before hemming)

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made: 

• I am 5'2" and 40-33-40.
• I cut the Bodice size 35D, but cut the Front underbust line at size 35A.
• Midriff : I cut the size 35 at top to 32.5 at waist.
• Midriff : I also lengthen by 3/4 inch : but will not do it next time.
• Skirt : I cut the size 32.5 with the size 25 hem. I still removed about 3 inch when hemming.
• I remove 3/4 inch on the mid riff back (piece #2) at the under bust tapered to nothing at the waist. (mismatched pattern pieces, has been resolved in the second release of the pattern.)

Would you sew it again? YES!! I will do a top with the remnant of fabric (bought 3m to be able to recut pieces if fitting dictates to!) And I would love a 3/4 sleeve version and some for the summer too! I'm super proud of my craftsmanship on this project ; my best to date! I love the numerous quality stitch of my machine...

Related :

• Cake Pattern : http://sewingcake.com/
• Etsy Cake Patterns : http://www.etsy.com/shop/SewingCake
• Tiramisu Sewalong - Flicker Group : http://www.flickr.com/groups/2143657@N21/pool/
• Tiramisu Sewalong - Tracing : My blog post 1
• Tiramisu Sewalong - Cutting : My blog post 2
• Tiramisu Sewalong - Prepping : My blog post 3
• PatternReview.com :  My review of the Tiramisu pattern.

Tira Sewalong - Prepping for Prep

Testing and Playing with Stitches

Tips from Emma One Sock on Double Knit Rayon Blend fabric : 

• Use jersey or stretch needles size 75.
• For hem, double needles stretch 4.0/75 or 2.4/75.
• Threads : cotton covered poly or 100% poly.
• Gentle touch with iron, medium heat, use press cloth to avoid shine.

 Breakdown :

• Read all materials/comments related to Day 3 to 7 and note every piece of info I needed! My goal is to stop navigating the web and looking for info while working on my tasks for the day (andget lost in unrelated links!!)... I hope to speedup the process this weekend! (2h)
• Test fabric under iron settings (15 min)  Cut a press cloth from 100% cotton in statsh...
• Test stitches, seam finishes, basting and top-stitching (1h) Note : Try overlock stitch/foot, triple zigzag stitch, walking foot, lowering pressure on foot, sewing with paper under the fabric...
• Try a mockup binding and top-stitching (30 min) 
• Try a mockup shoulder seam, with stay tape and topstitching (30 min)

 TOTAL : 2h research on web + 2h15 testing/playing with my NEW sewing machine! :D

Basting

Construction

Finishing

Topstitching

Chosen Stitch Settings :

• Basting : #1 Strait stich with length 5.0, Satin foot B
• Construction : #7 Stem stitch, Satin foot B
• Topsticthing : #6 Strait Stretch stich, Blind Hem foot D at 1/8 in.
• Finishing : #16 Overcast Stretch, Overcasting foot C, cut SA at 1/4 in.
• Hemming : TBD

Tira Sewalong - Day 2 Cutting

Cutting all done and overview of my project box.

Breakdown of Steps

• Modify midriff pieces to add 3/4 in in height for my 5 in torso. (20 min)
• Work on my cutting layout while chatting with my husband ; manage to squeeze everything in about 1.6 m so I didn't need to cut on the floor (and wash it first!)! (30 min)
• Pins the pattern pieces with the correct stretch lines positions. (20-30 min?)
• Cut all (40 min)
• Mark dots on fabric with tailor tacks (threads) or clover chaco liner pen style? (10 min)

TOTAL : 2h10

My cutting layout on 64in (1.6m) of 55in (140cm) wide fabric.

Note : The midriff pieces (far right, with patterns weights) were not pined there, it was merely to reserve some fabric for them to be cut on the remnant fabric folded the other way around, as per the pattern stretch/stripe line dictate.

Personal Comments

I was so afraid to cut my fabric, I think I suffer from the "deer caught in the headlight" syndrome every time I start a new project! I over think everything... But once I start a task, I'm an unstoppable train that ends up a train wreck the next morning because I went to bed at 2am! ;)

PS : I decided not to extend the sleeves of the bodice pieces into 3/4 ones for my first version ; but I still can decide later on to do the long sleeves hack as seen on sewing cake...

Tira Sewalong - Day 1 Tracing

My fabric for the Tiramisu dress.

Breakdown of Tracing Steps

Ponti di Roma

Fabric Choice : Raspberry Ponti di Roma Knit, 60% Polyester, 34% rayon and Lycra. Medium weight. 3m@13$/m about 40$.

Task and estimated time spent :

• Buy everything needed  (duration not added)
• Gather tools, pattern, fabric and put in project box (5 min)
• Machine wash my fabric on cold and tumble dry low. (duration not added)
• Cut tissue pattern. I did it with the "help" of my 2 and 4 years old. They love scrunching the non used tissue pattern and running to the bin to trow it in! (20 min)
• Trace errata (10 min)
• Choose size, reading on sewing cake and flicker again to make sure! (15 min)
• Ironing tissue pattern (10 min)
• Prepare kitchen table (10 min)
• Highlight my size and all the notches with my highlighter. Trace with a teethed tracing wheel on freezing paper, holding both tissue and paper with my weights. Cut the freezer paper with my paper scissors with the notches outward, make 2 recto/verso pieces for #7 and #8, Shorten the hem, write info with ink pen. (1h30)

TOTAL : 2h40

Tools used to trace my pattern pieces in my size.

Chosen Sizes

Freezer Paper Pattern Pieces.

I'm 5'2", muscular built, wide shoulders, full bust, long torso and small legs.
My high bust = 38 in
My Full Bust = 40 in
My underbust = 34 in
My Waist = 33 in
about 5 in between underbust and waist.

The Chosen Sizes :
Back Bodice and binding : size 35
Front bodice : size 35 D
I will extend the sleeves by 13 in.

Midriff : size 35 to 32,5
I will lengthen the midriff height by 3/4 in

Skirt : size 32,5 waist and 25 hem.
Designed hem is 24 po, I prefer 21 in (just above knee on me).

I will sew with a medium weight Ponti di Roma. Not much stretch (2 ways only) but definitely some weight on the bodice.

Personal Comments 

The tracing step is the one I always like less... I did it on the course of 2 days (Jan. 8 and 10). Maybe it would be faster to trace on thin translucent paper?

I need a big enough table to cut and trace in my sewing room with a flat top and maybe counter height. Doing it in the kitchen restrain me to wait until the kids are really asleep since both their bedroom doors are in the kitchen and they are too curious to fall asleep if they see/hear me!