All dressed up and nowhere to go! Anyway, I’m really pleased with my wearable muslin of the Cashmerette Alcott dress.I got this ‘Small Paisley Baby Scuba’ from the Textile Centre some time ago, but it is still available £5.99 a metre. The description on the website says it has a ‘tight’ stretch, but I found it to be very stretchy across the grain, and less so the other way.
https://www.cashmerette.com/collections/cashmerette-patterns/products/alcott-dress-pdf-pattern
https://www.thetextilecentre.co.uk/
Cashmerette have introduced a new size calculator where you input your measurements and it tells you what size to make in any of their patterns. This is brilliant. I input mine and it recommended 16GH grading to 22 at waist and hip and this is what I did. I wish this had been available when I first started sewing. I never did get the Concord Tee to fit perfectly and if only I had known to do this. I will go back to it again now.

I did make some changes to the pattern. I didn’t line the bodice but bound the raw edges instead. I thought that even though this is a lightweight scuba it would be too thick to line it. I’m really happy with the outcome. I also brought the bodice in 1” from the waist tapering to nothing at the neckline (see pic). I just don’t feel comfortable wearing a low neckline. This worked too! Yay!

And I added pockets. When adding pockets in a knit I usually just add the pocket shape to the skirt and cut them all in one. That’s what I did here (see pic).

I did rolled hems on the sleeve and skirt hem flounces. And I made up the skirt and then added the complete flounce. (The pattern has you add flounces to skirt pieces first.) You can see on the sleeve flounce that the back of the fabric is a rather garish pink!

The pattern calls for 2” elastic at the waist, but I only had 1.5” so I just trimmed 1/2” of each waistband piece and this worked well. I found the instructions for the waistband a bit confusing as the image seemed to contradict the text in terms of right side and wrong side. But I pinned it together first and I could see the text instructions worked so I ignored the picture.
This was a really satisfying sew and the scuba is surprisingly comfortable to wear. I’ll definitely make this again, maybe in plain black or navy.