Kenora's entry
This is a wearable toile of a nightdress for me. I bought 3 metres of a polyester/satin from Pound Fabrics at £2.50/m and wanted to see how the fabric would behave before I committed to buying something more expensive. In the event, the fabric behaved very nicely although it was fairly slippery to cut, so I used my large 60mm rotary cutter which helped a lot.
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The pattern is Butterick 5792 but I only used it for cutting out the fabric. I made the full length View C but without the bottom frill, the lace or the ties. I didn't bother with the instructions as I woudn't have followed them anyway. I'm not a fan of bias binding on garments so I altered the pattern to make the bodice fully lined with self fabric. I cut a size 14 based on the envelope informaton for finished measurements but ended up trimming down to a size 12 after I'd tried it on. The fabric has a tiny amount of lycra in it but it sewed beautifully. I used a 70/11 microtex needle, pale grey Gutermann thread, and a walking foot. I altered my stitch length to a 2.00mm, turned the foot pressure down to 3.5 and didn't backstitch when starting and ending seams, but tied off by hand instead.
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I stay-stitched the neck and armholes to prevent stretching while I sewed the pleats on the centre front bodice, then understitched all three areas after joining the lining to the main bodice. A bit over the top, but it made it much easier to turn before top-stitching very close to the edge. I used french seams for the sides, and then joined the lining to those seams by stitching in the ditch.
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I've never used this pattern before but I'm fairly happy with it. I would make it again but would alter the back neckline to be as low as the front, which is more what I'm used to. I like the look of the pleats in the front but I'm not sure how comfortable they'll be - I'll know more once I've worn it. It's all about comfort.