More Skating Dresses

The first year of sewing I made a LOT of practice dresses for skating. I wrote a lengthy pattern review a long while ago, so I don't really feel the need to write anything too much, but I thought I would show off my latest.

The first is possibly the practice dress from hell.  Everything that could go wrong, went wrong.  When I bought the fabric I swear the bolt said 58", but when I laid it out to cut I found a scant 42" width.  Luckily I had bought 2 yards of fabric, so I had just barely enough to eek out a dress.  The front skirt is a bit shorter than I like, but, well, there is a skirt, so that's something.  During the construction of this dress a pin got stuck on the underside of the fabric, which led to a frightening incident that involved a serger blade flying through the air towards my face, and a painful ten days without sewing (due to lack of a serger blade, not due to bodily injury).  The fabric itself isn't that pleasant either - it tends to roll and wrinkle, which isn't the most fun to deal with.  The construction isn't the best - this is not my greatest effort.  But, well, it is my first serger-constructed practice dress, and it did survive a day of rigorous practice and a tumble though the wash, so I will consider it a mild success.

Front

Back

I used the serger to edge finish the skirt
I still need to perfect the technique a bit

My second practice dress is made out of some fabric that I bought for less than $4/yard, so all in all the dress cost less than $10 to make.

Front

Back

Fabric close up

Again, not my best effort, but it is rather comfy to wear at practice.  I think I am going to need adjust my master pattern because the backs are gaping a lot at the sides, and they did not have that problem last year.  I am thinking I might need to alter the pattern a bit more aggressively for my swayback, and also possibly go to a smaller size in the waist area.  I am thinking it might be prudent to make two or three more practice dresses before I start work on my competition dresses for the year.  However, since these were the first skating dresses I made with my serger, I am pretty happy because the serged seams seem to be holding up pretty well.  While I think I am going to focus on my challenge items the next few weeks, I definitely plan on sewing some more skating dresses before the end of February.