Hello everyone!! Here follows another rendition of New Look 6000, as the title suggests. This is the first dress I’ve made for…..months.
Remember I said I was suffering from Not Enough Dresses Syndrome (aka NEDS)? Well this is my first month’s cure. I am allowed to make one dress per month & so fell into good ol’ New Look 6000 since it:
- Doesn’t take much fabric if you use the plain unpleated version (possibly 1.5m of 44″ sorry, mixing my units there – I have a mental blank about what the metric width is!)
- I’ve made it before so fitting is nearly (but not quite) right
- It has longer sleeves, which make it a better winter dress
- It’s quick to make
I did select a handful of other patterns though, willing my fabric to be long enough, but it wasn’t. NL6000 it was to be. The fabric I should add is brushed cotton (nice & warm!), a Rose & Hubble design which I bought from a fabric shop that was moving & had discovered hidden bales in the deepest darkest depths of its storeroom. NO IDEA what era it harks back to. There was something about the poppies & vibrant colours that drew me to it. It was going to be a possible Ginger skirt, or a gathered full wintery skirt to wear with boots that would take me back to the 1980s. However, NEDS won & I felt that all last year had stocked my wardrobe with plenty of wardrobe staples & it was time for some “frosting”.
I said that this was nearly a good fit. Remember this version here? Well it’s funny that the last time I looked at its back in the mirror (when wearing it) I realised that I needed to take out yet more of a wedge from the centre back. Needless to say I haven’t worn it since, & it is decorating my ironing pile. However, I did remember to remove a wedge from the CB when cutting out this latest version.
So I said that I only had about a metre and a half of this fabric, but that gave me enough to make the dress (but without the vent extension) plus my own version of cuffs (didn’t quite have enough to make the decorative cuffs with pointy sticky out edges) as well as enough for the collar. I did not cut facings as I wanted to use bias – & you’ll see how that benefitted me later down the line. But I would have had enough if I wanted to- just. NB using bias is not suitable for all fabrics & you’re probably going to get a more predictably sound finish if you use a facing….you know, the neckline might be more prone to gaping …
I steamed on with the sewing, using an invisible zip (purely because that was all I had in the colour) & machine basting the sides to try on for fit. What a good idea that was – I needed to narrow the hips a bit but apart from that it fitted fine, including the back – no gaping this time.
I had initially planned to make the sleeves a simple 3/4 length & hem them, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought they needed a cuff of some sort. Not having enough for the complete cuff that came with the pattern I made them to fit the end of the sleeve with a simple slit opening. I think this will work well for squirrelling away inside a cardigan, better than the pointed fancy cuffs methinks.
Sewing everything else was fine, as you’d expect, but shall I tell you about the time saving bias neck facing? Well! First of all you need to know that I started to make the collar (because it is simply adorable isn’t it?) But due to the wild crazy madness of the fabric’s pattern I thought it was a detail that would probably get lost. This dress needed a simple shape, simple clear lines so that the fabric did the shouting. When I had finished the dress – the sleeves were in, cuffs attached, skirt hemmed, neck finished, I tried it on. This dress’s neckline is quite high cut, not as wide as a boatneck, but that high.
Looking at it on me, it was too much – more skin was needed near my face. So I re-cut the neckline & as it was only faced in bias that did not involve having to recut a new facing – woohoo!!! It took about an hour to revise. And fancy a clever lazy tip ? (I swear being lazy is often a sign of intelligence, pity I am too guilty to ever carry it off successfully, but my cat? He’s got it sussed)
Anyway – lazy tip – I kept the scrap of fabric I cut off from the original neckline & have now stuffed it into the pattern envelope with the pattern so that I can use it as a template to amend future versions should I so wish. Quick & easy.
So the dress is dying to get taken out. I think it is another schizophrenic dress – it will be good for work or play. I like making such dual use clothing!
So, this month I will add it to the New Look 6000 gallery, & take the opportunity to update it with others that have recently been showcased here & here. As I see new versions popping up on the internets, I will continue to populate this gallery with links back to original blog posts. If you want me to link to any of your versions, please let me know in the comments & I’ll update it. Can you tell I still love this pattern? But I still NEED to make the gathered version! So far I’ve only made the simple sheath dress due to fabric limitations, but the gathers are lush!
