The LBD has been challenging my sewing skills and knowledge of late and after much deliberation I have decided to make it sleeveless. My fabric after closer scrutiny is a Ronaldo Wool Touch Brazil Suiting. Now I really didn’t know what this meant, but I know now this is a fabric that does not like to be eased, has very little if any give to the fabric, and with the tight sleeves of this dress the two were not a suitable mix.

I spent last Saturday at the Alexandria Achievers ASG Group doing a lot of frog stitching and managed to work out how to change this dress to a sleeveless version. It is still not 100% to my liking and instead of rushing it and “just getting it done”, I have put it aside this week to restore my sense of achievement.

This is BWOF 05-2008-104 which is the longer version of this top I made in January. My inspiration came from a dress by Phase Eight I saw in a magazine and my fabric is from KnitWit.

As I had already done the pattern alterations for the orange top, I only had to extend the pattern to a dress and trace off the new band to incoporate the buckle that I purchased when we visited Victoria Island in Canada earlier this year.

I cut this fabric out on Friday night and then on Saturday with my sewing buddies I got it up to the hem stage, and then today after DH levelled the hem for me, I hemmed it with my Janome CP 1000 (I had also used this for the hems on the band) and wore it to the Rhodes Fashion Sewers ASG group for their Christmas Lunch. (You read correclty I attended two ASG Groups and sewed with my regular sewing buddies this month.)

This knit has more stretch than the top I made so the neckline is a bit lower than I normally wear and it did take me quite a few tries to find a necklace that worked, and I can see that I need to find one similar to the one they have pictured with the inspiration dress.

Here is the view from back once I got home.