Purple knit dress and a great tip for hemming knits

 Thanks for the birthday post yesterday, Emily! So glad to be on this blogging journey with you! xoxo
I nearly got to share my birthday with our new nephew. Our brother Andrew and his wife welcomed their first baby - Silas Mitchell into the world 20 minutes before my birthday. Congratulations to you both and we all can't wait to meet him!

Lately I have been working on perfecting sewing with knits. The biggest problem I have is with hems. It is frustrating spending time making a garment that I am pleased with only to mess it up with the hem. I have trouble with it curling up. I found some terrific tips on working with knits here at http://www.made-by-rae.com/.  More specifically, she lists six ways to deal with hems here. I tried number three- knit stay tape. Except I didn't have knit stay tape (didn't even know there was such a thing). I used this:

Dritz Stitch Witchery tape

 

I serged the edge first then pressed it up a quarter of an inch, sandwiching the Stitch Witchery in the hem. I sewed it on my machine with a regular stitch but with a slightly longer length. Oh, and I used my beloved built in walking foot (I use that nearly all the time). I gave it another press when I was finished and tada - the best knit hem I have ever made. 

This purple dress I made for Project Run and Play's Flicker group last week - the theme was color, to make an outfit based on one color. I didn't get it finished in time to post by Friday morning but here it is:

The dark purple is a knit I bought at Joann's. (We really like purple in this family.) The light purple is from a tee shirt of mine I had stashed in the upcycle box but it started out white. 

I had to dye some cotton lace purple for another project so I dyed the tee, too. 

I had never tried this before and it was super easy. Just hot water in a tub in the sink for a total of an hour, 

 a quick wash in the washing machine and air dry and I was done. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of the lace after. I used the dyed tee fabric for the sleeves, hood, and pocket. I used the sleeves of the tee for the sleeves of the dress, cutting them smaller of course. Then I did not have to hem the sleeve, they were already hemmed. My mother looked at the hem sleeve and said, "my machine doesn't do that." I replied, "neither does mine."

The heart on the pocket was from the original tee shirt. The pocket is bulging unnaturally because there was a stuffed kitten in it. (and I really need a fancy camera like Emily's. Paul, are you reading this?)

Yeah, she has crazy hair.

I braided it wet so she would have kinky hair the next day but she wanted the braids out at bedtime because they were "boddering" her. 

The hood. The dress is a tiny snug. I didn't have a pattern and cut in too far under the arms. It was fun to make so I will just have to try it again!