I am such a fan of my first Moneta dress that I decided to make another from some fabric that I’ve had in my stash for a while. I bought the fabric, as I so often do, on a whim when Knitwit was having a sale and then thought that I didn’t like it much. However, now it’s made, I do quite like it.
It is a lovely 100% cotton knit with goodish stretch and excellent recovery and I thought that this Moneta wouldn’t be quite as fitted tight. How wrong I was. I decided to lengthen the bodice a little bit as I kept seeing myself in profile in the first one looking very second trimester. Stupidly, I managed to forget how wide I am in the waist and just extended the seam line on the same angle, giving myself a lovely narrow waist of just 24″. I can shoehorn myself in, but I have heard some alarming creaks from the stitching as I drag this dress over my rather lavish lumpy bits!
I used the original collar again as I do love the way it looks both front and back.
Everything else worked out ok. I worked hard on the pattern matching and got close, but not quite perfect, which is very, very annoying. I did manage to avoid having two large circles misplaced on my chest, but this was good luck rather than good management!
I’ve really got the coverstitch on my overlocker worked out now. I can rethread the machine in under 3 minutes and have set myself a 2 minute challenge. This is a big improvement on my original 9 minutes! I used the coverstitch on the hems on the skirt and the sleeves, and when I wore this dress to a Christmas function someone actually commented on the stitching around my sleeves.
I had enough fabric left over to make a top, although an emergency dash to Knitwit was required on Saturday afternoon when I realised I’d forgotten to cut out sleeves and I had run out of fabric. Luckily they were still open. I haven’t worn the top yet, but it’s coming soon.
The details: Pattern is the Moneta by Colette Patterns, fabric is cotton knit from Knitwit, belt is made by me, shoes are Letizia from Letizia, Claremont.