White Tree Fabrics – Jersey Fabric and Simple Sew 007 – Part 2

For my next top, made with the lovely jersey fabrics supplied by White Tree Fabrics, I did a bit of pattern hacking with the gorgeous Bella Dress pattern. This was a free pattern with a Love Sewing magazine issue, from Simple Sew patterns. I’ve been wanting to make the Bella Dress for ages but as I hardly ever wear dresses, I thought it would be great as a top. The blue-grey warm jersey from White Tree was the perfect fabric to use.

The Bella Dress is a lovely flattering shape, which comes in at the waist and has back darts which give a wonderful shape. The sleeves are fluted which again gives a really nice shape and the neckline is a slouchy roll neck. I decided to trim the pattern just below the hips to make a long top and I straightened off the curve which goes over the hip, so that the top didn’t pull in at the bottom. I also made the next size up to what I would normally choose for this pattern as it’s a nice figure hugging dress and I wanted it to be a loose-fitting top.

Some tips on sewing with jersey fabrics: use a ball point or jersey needle in your sewing machine. Use a polyester (all-purpose) sewing thread, which has a little stretch and won’t break easily like cotton thread would. Remember to use a stretch-stitch and use an over-locking stitch to finish all the raw edges. I used my over-locker for the raw edges and main seams and I used my sewing machine for hemming. Don’t stretch the fabric as you sew it, unless your pattern specifically tells you to do so. Just gently guide it and let the feed dogs move it through.

Our popular warm jersey fabric has proved to be a huge hit with our customers and our bloggers. This versatile fabric is just perfect for fashion, as our bloggers have proven. Take a look at these previous projects which include dresses, t-shirts, cardigans and hoodies:

Louise's Purple Coco Dress

Skye's Charcoal long sleeve Tee

Katie's Gold Cardi

Erin's snuggly Purple Hoodie

We're so pleased to be able to bring you a wonderful make from our blogger Louise, who wore her creation on her Honeymoon in Iceland! I guess this fabric really puts the 'warm' into warm jersey, plus this garment is in the gorgeous festive red shade. Over to Louise....

Here it is, my latest make for White Tree Fabrics  and a super cosy Coco dress for my Icelandic honeymoon! The pattern is the good old Tilly and the Buttons Coco dress , but this time I made it with a funnel neck and cuffs as previously I’ve only made the dress sweet and simple and thought it was about time I gave myself more of a challenge!

The fabric I used was the warm jersey in red ,which has a one-way stretch, meaning that it hugs around your body absolutely wonderfully. It also makes it very snuggly and the perfect material for that fold-down funnel neck!  I think I used 1.5m altogether for this dress, including the extra details and the pockets, as well as a reel of red thread.

I have to say that this dress was absolutely perfect for Iceland, where it frequented minus 10°c on more than one occasion. I love the red colour too – it’s so vibrant and very festive. It also matches the colour of my bridesmaids dresses which is a happy co-incidence! There’ll be a few images of both my wedding and my honeymoon popping up on the blog soon once I’ve had chance to edit so keep an eye out for those if you’re interested :) In the meantime, here are some more pics of my 4th Coco!

Huge congratulations to Louise on her marriage - we can't wait to see the wedding pictures, and of course the other dress!

Louise from Thread Carefully has created one of the most cosy looking dresses we've seen in a long time. Combining our ever popular warm jersey with the Tilly and the Buttons Coco pattern, Louise has created something that whilst being a simple and easy make, delivers fantastic results.

Tilly and the Buttons Coco Jersey Dress

Remember I said I was desiring simple sewing projects?  Well you could not get more simple than Tilly’s Coco dress! White Tree Fabrics kindly sent me the pattern and 2 metres of their ‘warm jersey‘ for this project.

Now, I hope you are prepared to be really jealous of where I live – the tropical, glamorous beaches of the East Riding of Yorkshire were the perfect location to shoot these photos…..

My feet aren't touching the floor in this photo!

The pattern is great.  Simple, but great.  I was on the fence about this pattern for so long, because of its simplicity.  I felt like after having been on three pattern cutting courses, I could draft it myself… but this is probably me being overly confident and, well, wrong.  Maybe.  We will never know, because when White Tree Fabrics started stocking Tilly’s patterns I hesitated not a moment longer and ordered it!

My feet aren't touching the floor in this photo, either!

Boy, am I glad to own this pattern!  I traced it one evening, and I’m not kidding, the next lunchtime I made my first Coco in UNDER ONE HOUR.  And I even liked it, which was itself a surprise because I wasn’t sure if it would be flattering on me (even though it looks great on everyone else).

Running towards the North sea. Totally tropical, don't you know!

My White Tree Fabrics Coco is one of the plainest things I have ever made.  You know me: prints, prints, and more prints!  But it’s getting cold, and I wanted cosy, and after ordering some samples I just couldn’t resist the ‘warm jersey’.  This fabric is actually like a woolly fine knitted fabric, like they use to make cardigans etc.  It is super soft and really warm and cosy.

Neckline Close up

I made the most basic Coco dress – plain neckline, no cuffs, no pockets.  I added 2″ to the length which still leaves it above the knee but not too short.  I was very careful not to stretch the fabric as I sewed, because the fabric recommendations call for a stable jersey and the fabric I chose was a bit too stretchy, really.  I stabilised the shoulder seams with elastic (pictured below), and I also used the same elastic to stabilise the neckline before turning it under and topstitching it, too.

Elastic to stabilise the shoulder seams

I used Bondaweb to stabilise the hemline before sewing it.  The stretch recovery of the fabric is great, so its stretchiness is no problem now that the dress has been sewn together.  Oh, and it washes nicely too, on a machine wool cycle.

A mid-application shot of the Bondaweb, which I ironed in to stabilise the hem before sewing it with a zig zag stitch

I really love this dress, but it does feel weird to be blogging about such a simple sewing project!  However, the dress is already getting worn a lot because it’s so snuggly and practical.  It feels easy to wear, and stylish in an understated way.  I’m on the lookout for some sort of bonkers jersey print for a future Coco, but for now I’m very happy with this one!

Thanks to White Tree Fabrics, and my photographer and co-blogger, Aileen.
 

Shopping list:
Tilly and the Buttons Coco Sewing Pattern, click here.
Warm Jersey fabric (available in 9 fantastic colours! Click here.

If you've already spied our warm jersey in our shop and you're wondering what you might be able to make with it, Seamstress Erin has got a pretty good idea as she created the perfect lightweight (but very snuggly) hoodie with it.  

Take a look at her teriffic make in full below.  

The highlight of the last couple weeks of my life? Not getting a subwoofer for my car. Not my brother's 30th birthday. Not even buying a wedding band for my fiancé. It's the fact that I can finally wear my leggings in public!! Okay, maybe that's a bit of hyperbole, but I've pretty much worn only this tunic since finishing it!

I used Vogue 8951. The cover art didn't do much for me (frankly it looked a little boring and, well, middle-aged). But I love hoodies as comfy clothes and it is tunic length (a must since leggings are not pants) and I figured I'd give it a shot. And I'm so glad I did! (It wasn't until after I sewed it up that I remembered my friend Shams of Communing with Fabric had made a great version although, since she has the opposite body shape as I do, the final effect is different.) The pattern and delicious aubergine knit were sent to me by White Tree Fabrics. As I said, the pattern is functional but oh my do I luuurve this fabric! It's so snuggly and a great color and the perfect weight for just about year-round West Coast wearing. They call it a "warm jersey" which is a pretty good description - it's just a bit warmer and fuzzier than a normal t-shirt weight jersey.

And let me say it one more time - it's so snuggly!

The pattern calls for a mullet hem which is NOT my preference, so I lengthened the front to match the back. I could have made the top shorter as it's closer to a dress length than a tunic length, but I think leaving the slits on the side makes it wear as a top. I graded the top out for my hips, narrowed the shoulder by 1", and added some height to the sleeve cap so that the sleeve shape was less of a drop shoulder and more fitted although you can see that with the large neck slit and the weight of the hood, the shoulders droop down.
The front slit is finished with a facing and the hood seam is covered with a back facing. I really didn't want the top-stitching visible on the front of the tunic as the pattern instructs, so I tried to wear it with only the back facing stitched down. It didn't work. The front facing kept flipping up. So I caved and topstitched the front facing down and, surprisingly, it totally doesn't even bother me when wearing it.
The pattern called for the entire front and back facing to be interfaced, but I didn't want to add too much structure since I wanted a drapey comfy top (and, honestly, I didn't have any more than scraps of knit interfacing on hand) so I went ahead and only interfaced the seam of the back neck. I also added interfacing to the seam of the shoulder seams to give them a bit of reinforcement (a tip I learned watching Craftsy's 40 Techniques Every Sewer Should Know).

Like I said, I've been wearing this tunic over and over. To the point I may actually make a second one as soon I get moved. Have I mentioned that I'm moving? Yeah, I know, I can't stop talking about it (especially on Twitter. Sorry tweeps!) The moving truck comes tomorrow, I just ran out of boxes, and there's a ton to do. And Adam is gone for work for the weekend. I'm kinda freaking out right now!
Thanks again to White Tree Fabrics for sending me this delicious knit fabric!

We absolutely love seeing our fabrics turned into something so fantastic and handmade.  We think Erin made a wonderful job of working with our jersey and we can't wait to see what she chooses for her next project with us!