On The Inside Of This Marble House I Grow

I like blogging. It's a great way for me to document the things I create. I try to take nice pictures, because if you're taking pictures anyway, why not make them nice? But that sometimes means standing outside in the cold while people look at you funny.

So, yeah. That's a bit of a downside, and a reason why most of my old posts were photographed in deserted industrial landscapes! But hey, I made a two piece set to wear, and wore it when it was not nearly warm enough for a trip to Brussels to meet with Laure.

This is another Deer & Doe pattern, the Zephyr dress (or in this case, the crop top and skirt). I'd been eyeing this one for a while but knowing that I could probably figure out something similar myself always held me back from buying it. But then the lazy side of me won and I remembered Deer & Doe patterns tend to fit me really well, so I got the pdf! It is a very simple pattern, and I like how all the different versions are split in different files (with two separate files for the skirt and top!) so they make it even easier for lazy me to print only the pages I need.

The fabric suggestions for this are medium-weight knits 'such as ponte or scuba' with at least 40% stretch. I tend to ignore stretch percentages, measuring the pattern pieces instead and maybe sizing up if I'm afraid my fabric isn't stretchy enough, and I wasn't too worried since the suggested fabrics are ponte and scuba, and those aren't that stretchy, right?

Well, you better find that unicorn super stretchy ponte if you want to make this pattern as drafted!

At first I had cut the waistband, arm- and neckbands from self fabric, and quickly realised that wasn't going to work. The waistband especially is tiny (it's ten cm smaller than my waist and actually fits my head pretty well) and even cut from a stretchier fabric it would have created a spectacular muffin top, so I ditched the self fabric and cut everything from black cotton ribbing, with a bit of extra length in that waist. Instead of relying on the ribbing to keep everything up I inserted some elastic into the waist. Solved!

I also deepened the armholes a bit since I wanted those bands on the outside like the neckline, and not turned to the inside and topstitched as per the instructions. This fabric is a poly/viscose mix and didn't like to be pressed, so I topstitched all the bands down to keep things smooth.

The top is pretty short as drafted, so I turned under the tiniest baby hem I could and stitched it down. I briefly considered finishing that with a band as well, but thought it would look weird with the waistband. The skirt hem is finished with a bias tape facing, thankfully the fabric was stable enough for that!

I was a bit worried about using this dark fabric for something more suitable for warmer weather, but I thing I'll even wear this without tights. Or, as Eleonore said, you're going to look pale as hell but it will be fine! (Not an exact quote, but you get the gist)