Lola, Lola, Lola!

Three (3) Victory Patterns Lola Dresses

In January, 2014 I made my first Victory Patterns Lola dress. I absolutely have loved wearing it.

As soon as my DD saw it, she ordered one for herself. It took a year for me to get around to making it, bad Mother that I am. While I was at it, I made another one for myself, greedy Mother that I am. (grin)

Then when DD got her grey dress from me in the mail, she went shopping for some more XL sweatshirts in a different colorway for a second sweatshirt dress for herself. After all, since her Mom and two, why shouldn't she?

So that's the backstory of how I came to make 3 more Victory Patterns Lola dresses in as many months.

Here are two of the dresses, the navy for me and the grey for my DD:

The navy dress (mine) skims the knee, and the grey dress (DD's) is 3.5 inches above the knee.

Here is the red one, the second Lola for my DD:

 

And here are the cute shoes I bought for her to match the dress:

The pattern is Victory Patterns' Lola Dress:

 Materials:

 I purchased two (2) XXL or XXXL sweatshirts for each dress and unstitched all of the ribbing so I could re-use it for the dress. I had plenty ribbing and some fabric leftover, especially for my DD's dresses which are shorter than mine and were one size smaller. (You can actually get away with a L and an XL for the shortened size 4 if you seam the center back instead of placing it on a fold.)

Using purchased sweatshirts ensures a ribbing that perfectly matches and maintains the sweatshirty-ness of the dress.

Size:

This is such an easy dress to make and so cute on.  However, it runs really large, so I made a muslin for the very first Lola dress. I ended up taking the Size 6 in considerably especially in the neckline and shoulders and the graded out to a Size 10 in the bust and hips. For my DD, I took in the Size 4. Her dress has less ease than mine does, by preference.

Sewing Techniques not in Pattern Instructions:

I used clear elastic to stabilize both the neckline edge before adding the binding and the waistline edge. This dress pulls on over the head and it is a close fit in the bodice, so you don't want those seams stretching. I did this by laying the clear elastic in the seam allowance and securing it with a multiple zig-zag stitch. 

Then I stitched the seam and serged the seam edges together before turning and topstitching.

Also note that the pockets on this dress are designed to be wider than the lower side piece to which they are sewn. I thought this looked sloppy, so I trimmed the pockets to fit the width of the lower side piece.

The most intricate part is getting the V on the front of the dress to look authentic. I didn't like the look on my original dress as much, since the edges were sort of fuzzy. So I devised a plan on how to make the V look really good. Here's what I came up with (warning, this is really fussy sewing, but the end result looks soooo good!)

1      To make the V-shaped applique

a.       Place Applique Pressing Sheet (Teflon sheet) on ironing board

b.      Place sweatshirt triangle fuzzy side down on the Teflon sheet. Put a piece of black fusible tricot  interfacing (or other lightweight knit interfacing) on top, glue side of the tricot against the smooth side of the triangle. (Glue side down).  Lightly fuse.

 The tricot serves two purposes: to reinforce 

the triangle and also to secure the triangle 

to the dress (see g. below)prior to topstitching

 it in place.

c.       Right side up, lay the fused sweatshirt triangle on top of a square of black tearaway stabilizer and pin to secure. The layers are

                                                               i.      Sweatshirt triangle on top with fuzzy side up

                                                             ii.      Fused tricot layer in middle

                                                            iii.      Tearaway stabilizer layer on bottom

 

The purpose of the stabilizer is to allow you to stitch

 a smooth edge without tunneling the fabric.

 

d.      Honeycomb stitch the V-edge of the triangle. Pivot at the corner (triangle apex) with the needle on the outside edge of the triangle so that stitch is unbroken

 

Stitch #64 on Janome 8900 

 

(In these photos, I used a satin stitch, but the 

honeycomb stitch (used on later dresses) 

looks better--more like that seen on 

nicer sweatshirts.)

e.     From the back of the piece, remove the tearaway stabilizer from the center and edges of the triangle. Do this slowly and carefully so as not to disturb the satin stitches.

f.        Turn one edge of the tricot under with a tight wrap so that it does not show. Pin in place. From the right side, topstitch along the inside edge of the satin stitch. Trim away the excess tricot from along that edge.

 

This is a view from the right side (the fuzzy side) of the V

 with the tricot piece underneath. 

Photo above taken before the tricot was turned under,

 secured with pins, and then topstitched from the right

 side along the inner edge of the decorative stitch.

 

This is a view from the back side of the piece with the tricot 

edge tightly turned, topstitched in place from the right side, 

and now having its excess trimmed away.

g.       Repeat with other edge of triangle: tightly turn the tricot under, pin, topstitch from the right side next to the inner edge of the honeycomb (or satin) stitch, and trim away the excess tricot.

You now have the triangle ready to center on the dress’s neckline. The turned tricot edge has the glue side out, so pressing it on the dress in the correct position will secure it for topstitching.

h.      Place the triangle on the dress neckline matching the pattern marks. Press into place, using steam so that the edges of the triangle are fused onto the dress.

 

i.         Edgestitch the triangle onto the dress.

Pattern instructions ignored for a good reason, and pattern changes:
1. Pressed the seams exactly opposite as recommended. The side front/back seams were pressed toward the center and the high waistline seam was pressed up.

2.  Topstitched every seam. The recommended seam allowance is 3/8 inch for this pattern, so the topstitching is at a scant 3/8 inch. The instructions show topstitching in some of the drawings but do not mention actually doing it on all of the seams.

3. Lengthened the sleeves by 2 inches for a 3/4 length sleeve, which I prefer.

Whew! This turned out to be a long post! Sorry!