A Planetary Coco

I should know better by now than to just "pop in" to Tessuti for a browse. "Just looking, no buying" I tell myself. Pfft! Who am I kidding?

I had some time to kill before a food blogger lunch in Chatswood recently so I thought I'd just duck into Tessuti for a quick lap. And then I spotted this AWESOME acrylic knit which felt just lovely, all drapy and cozy. Better still the fabric is called "Space, the final frontier". Irresistible to a Star Trek fangirl like myself (Voyager is my series of choice just incidentally {for those of you who are curious}).

Although the Coco pattern isn't perfect on me I feel that I have finally found a pattern that fits and will work (reasonably) well in different types of knits (theory yet to be tested of course). So I've made myself a "spacey Coco".

Urgh, does anyone else hate cutting out on the floor as much as I do? I don't want my own sewing room as I find sewing alone quite lonely...but I'd KILL for a great bit cutting table.

Despite my best efforts to get the neckband "just right" I failed. Spectacularly. Why so much gape Coco? Honestly I hated the neckline of this dress so much I was contemplating just chucking it into the Vinnie's bag. For some reason the gape was also making the dress REALLY darn uncomfortable on my shoulders.  Unpicking the neck would've destroyed the fabric as it just frays/falls apart quite easily as soon as the unpicker is near it.

I think I probably lost a bit of sleep over this dress as I was disappointed. I kept trying it on and looking at the gapey neckline. It seemed like such a shame to chuck the dress as the fabric was SO AMAZING! I then thought I could just turn the neckline in on itself and stitch it down...and you know what? It actually kinda worked though it's a bit bulky, almost like quilting. The neck sits much closer to my body now and for some reason is more comfortable (though not perfect) on my dodgy shoulders.

I wore the dress to work and got quite a few compliments so that was nice. However, when my boss didn't comment on my dress I made sure he knew it was handmade (by me)...and that he should say it is awesome (he obliged). I was "mostly" comfortable for "most of the day". As the day wears on and my shoulder gets sorer and sorer and clothes get more and more uncomfortable as they restrict my movement. But I work in an office and nakedness is frowned upon despite our casual approach to dressing. I think next time I'm not going to take Tilly's advice of sewing ribbon to stablise the shoulder seams...I'll use clear elastic (another of her suggestions I think) as that should give the shoulder a bit more "give".

Big thanks to my work buddy Kirsty for taking the photos for me as my in-house photo was away. It was pretty windy (can you tell) and we had to dodge people coming in and out of the building but that's life in the big city, hey?

Until next time Trekkies!