The hacked spin dress with tutorial

Give me some new Nosh fabrics and a cute knit dress pattern and I’m off to my sewing room from the moment I find some spare time. When I ordered these amazing fabrics, I didn’t have a project in mind yet so I had to adjust the pattern a bit to make this lovely spin dress.

I ended up adjusting the skirt piece a bit because I didn’t have enough of the lovely powder pink fabric. And then I thought: why not adjust the sleeves too. I love this type of sleeves since I’ve sewn myself a Factory dress. An unblogged project! At the end of this blogpost I’ve added a small tutorial for you that explains how you can make these sleeves yourself. Starting from the original pattern pieces.

I think the pictures speak for themselves. Nore loves the dress! It’s soft, it’s pretty, it spins and it includes a girly touch with the tule bow that I made with a left over from another project.

The most difficult part was to finish the skirt in a perfect way. I used a contrasting grey thread (why oh why) and it had to be perfect. Stress!

I adjusted the neckline a bit too. Not the pattern pieces, just the way I’ve sewn it. I skipped the neckband, serged the neckline after sewing the shoulder seams and just folded the fabric 1cm inwards. Afterwards I used my twin needle to topstitch it. Easy!

The sleeves are a small test for my own next pattern. I will start working on a knit dress pattern after this holiday and yes I will probably include this type of sleeves. I think it’s easy and quick to sew and so cute on girls.

Thanks Nosh for the lovely organic fabrics and Olu for offering me the dress pattern. A perfect match!

Wanna try these sleeves too? Here is a small tutorial for you:

First of all. Keep in mind that a 1cm seam allowance is included in this pattern.

At the shoulder seam we first add a marking at 2cm from the outer edge. This is were we will match the sleeve with the shoulder seam. BUT at the shoulder seam 1cm SA is included at the sleeve there isn’t (normally it’s been cut on the fold line). So we’ll place the sleeve 1cm lower as shown on the picture below. Afterwards match the arm pits of both pattern pieces as shown below.

When you cut the pattern pieces DON’T cut the arm pit around the pattern pieces but make a small curve as shown below.

We’ll adjust both the FRONT and BACK bodice in the same way. Afterwards pin both with right sides together. Close the side seams and the shoulder seams as shown below.

Turn the bodice to its final position.

Cut 2 contrasting sleeve bands (its this the right word? Help! ;) ) The width is the same as the circumference of the sleeve opening PLUS 2cm seam allowance. The height is 6cm, SA included.

Close the short sides of the sleeve bands to make a loop. Afterwards fold it in two. Wrong sides of the fabric together. Pin the folded sleeve band inside the sleeve opening. (Match the seams at the armpit.) This way the sergerd edge will be on the outside. BUT we’ll fold over the pink part so this way we’ll cover it.

Repeat on the other side. READY! Hope you like this small tutorial. Let me know it’s you’ve tried it. Thanks!