Iggety ziggety zaggety zoom and a story about body respect (or LadySkater v Moneta)

Me, loving zig zags

I love zigzags. I love chevrons, but I also loved them before when they were just zigzags. I liked them before they were cool and I will love them long after they are (which I think starts now, recent shopping suggest quatrefoil is the new chevron and teal is the new navy).

I made two dresses quite a while ago, both in different colourways of Riley Blake's medium chevron knit. I considered one dress much more successful than the other, but I wear them both, so that must count for something.

I sewed up Kitschy Coo's Lady Skater dress first, in red on white and then Colette's Moneta in red tone on tone. My pre-sewing thought was that neither of these would end up wearable outside the house, or at least beyond a cover up at swimming (my minis still need a parent in the water with them). I was pleasantly surprised with both, but let me go back to why I sewed them both.

So I only have front-on pictures standing at odd angles. No, I can't remember why.

I wanted to try sewing a women's knit dress. This was a big deal for me, because I am very uncomfortable with the squidginess of my body. Leaving aside that bodies are inherently squidgy, I nonetheless am quite self-conscious about my mid-section. I have always been conscious of how that part of my body looks and having children has done little to dissipate my reservations.  However, the example I want to set for my children is that our bodies are remarkable and useful things and to admire what they can do, rather than focus on how they look - and any dissatisfaction that comes with that.

So, why knit dresses? They are super-fast to put together (stitching and finishing all in one, thank you Veronica - that's my overlocker) and they require fairly minimal fitting (gee that looks loose, another pass with the overlocker - woot). Plus they are comfortable and don't need to be ironed. So. Much. Winning. Also I make a lot of them for my daughter and it is my not-so-secret dream to dress like the Von Trapps.

Bravely wearing Moneta sans belt

This was around the time of the Moneta blog tour (I particularly like Sophie-Lee's and Mrs Hughes') and the launch of the Curvy Sewing Collective. I think they are a wonderfully talented group and the Collective has certainly increased the range of blogs that I read for the better. At the time I also stopped following another blogger because of a blog post written about both the Moneta and some comments, which to my mind totally disempowered the women sewing these dresses and clearly enjoying them, based solely on a subjective and normative/abject view of bodies.

So I decided that in order to live what I espouse I needed to sew up these dresses and enjoy whatever features they had without overthinking how my body looked.

So, the sewing.

It appears I can stand up straight, but only if I'm doing something supremely awkward with my feet.

I feel like I am the last person on the internet to sew a Lady Skater (Here are Heather B's and Kaddidlehopper's). I purchased this pattern as part of the first Perfect Pattern Parcel and then printed up and glued together my pieces with an unexpected surge of energy. Then I got distracted by other things and they sat around in the shovatorium for a few months. Word to the wise: do not store your pattern pieces and tracing like this if you ever want to find all the pieces ever again. I did manage to find all the parts of the dress pattern, but there was some shifting of furniture and giant piles of mess to do so.

The Riley Blake chevron jersey is fantastic to cut and sew with. Very little curling and very well behaved. I made absolutely no attempt to match the chevrons on either dress and I think that is obvious to the eye that looks for it. The number of compliments I have received (and requests to make the dresses for other people!) suggests that the non-sewists (I want to write sewer, but I just can't, it looks wrong) really don't notice these things. I did find that the tone on tone jersey has that over-printed look to it and I find the tone on tone makes the red look less a true red, but I don't mind it too much, although I prefer the red on white.

I was worried about where the waistline of both these dresses would hit me (not worried enough to sew a muslin, just quietly concerned), I was pleased with how the lady skater worked out, but the Moneta I find is a bit high. I have a short waist (and no hips), so tend to prefer a lower waistline to help create an illusion of more normative curves. It really depends on what makes you comfortable. Both these dresses made me realise that when it comes to clothes, it's best not to look down, look in the mirror, but looking down everything you worry about is amplified and generally no one else is looking at that. Particularly when they are distracted by zig zag awesomeness.

The lady skater pattern was very easy to work with, my only deviation was to stay stitch the front and back bodice pieces at the neckline. I'm cautious by nature. I mostly followed my usual approach of machine basting and then overlocking, but by the time I was attaching the skirt and sewing the side seams, I got the shi, couldn't be bothered and so just went straight to the overlocker and they were fine. I love the sleeve and neckline bands, they have really helped the dress to hold its shape in spite of a lot of wear.

The back of the dress. Because sewing blogging.

Moneta was also an easy pattern to follow. Colette do instructions very well and there was also a sew along, which provides that extra resource for putting things together. The sleeves are sewn in flat and the skirt is gathered with clear elastic. I also like the pockets. I put it together primarily with my overlocker, with things like hems done on my regular machine.

The only change I made was to stabilise the pocket openings with fusible tape. Tell a lie, I also took about six centimetres off the hem. If I were to make this dress again, I would maybe lengthen the bodice, stabilise the shoulders, reassess the hem length and look at other finishing options for the neckline - it has stretched out over time.

More back.

I chose to do a zig zag for the hem on both dresses, because I find twin needling so slow (and painful). Also zigzag dresses need zigzag stitching. I now own a coverstitch and would probably use that, or alternatively just a long top stitch on a future dress, because there isn't really any great pressure on the hem of these patterns.

Pockets!

Both dresses stand up to everyday wear very well. My lady skater has been shopping, to a play school concert, out for lunch, playing with little tikes and baking and didn't sag or look tired at the end of the day, so massive win there. Moneta has done a similar range of things, as well as being handy to chuck on before swimming on a Sunday morning. I have even worn my lady skater to work, I was a bit unsure as my workplace is very conservative, but on a Friday with no external meetings, I figured I was at least as well dressed as the man wearing socks with his sandals (and my senior boss who takes two hours to change out of her sportswear after going for a walk at lunch).

Interestingly although I prefer the shape of the lady skater, I think Moneta may be more flattering. I think part of that may be due to my aversion to gathers. In the end though, how it looks is and should be secondary to how it feels and I like how I feel when I wear both of these (although I wish I hasn't been so cavalier shortening my Moneta).

Moneta out and about

If I had written this post when I first sewed up these dresses I would have called Moneta a failure, but truly I wear it a lot, so by that metric it is far from a failure (and believe me, they definitely exist). I prefer my lady skater, because I like the lower waistline and smoothly tapered skirt, over a gathered one, but it turns out they are a couple of very handy additions to my wardrobe. And even though you can't tell by looking, they also represent my support for everyone everywhere to wear and sew what makes them happy.