One Out Of the Box

What was the dress that I hid in the gift box instead of that over the top ballet costume?

My new favourite: an everyday knit dress made using the Building Block Dress Book pattern

This is the most perfect fitting, easy to wear knit dress for my kid. For me, it's a delight to sew.

I'm no speedster when it comes to sewing, and I won't talk about hours or minutes spent sewing as it just doesn't translate to anyone else's sewing experience. But, I'm happy to say that once cut out, this dress is a "one evening sew". That is, if I start after the kid's are in bed and all the chores done then I can finish the dress while it's still reasonable to refer to the time as "late at night" rather than "early the next morning".

The dress is exactly the same as the first one I made, which was done in order to put the Building Block Dress pattern to the test in a knit - it's designed for woven fabrics.

The pocket openings are bound using a strip of ribbing. I've used a long, straight stitch to stitch in the ditch catching the serged edge of the binding on the inside. The neckline is finished in the same way. Otherwise the whole dress is constructed on the overlocker. The skirt is nice and twirly and a little gathered, but not so much as to need gathering stitches - a welcome relief after all those metres of gathered chiffon! The twin needle* comes out for hemming and it's done.

* Have you seen my Twin Needle Hemming Tips & Tricks? It's a blog post that gets a lot of traffic over at Oliver + S and I've been delighted to see so many new converts to the twin needle cause!

Sorry to interrupt your reading but could you give me a few more pictures? Please?

Details:
Pattern: Oliver + S Building Block Dress Book. Basic dress block  - omitted back closure. Below waist pockets. See here for more details on modifications.
Size: 5 with length of 6
Fabric: Leftover metallic dot grey t-shirt knit from Clearit (used previously here for me!). Merle grey knit ribbing