Anthropologie Inspired Tie-Neck Sweater Dress

It’s hard to find friends that you can do anything with and still have fun. Even better is when that anything doesn’t involve spending any money. Shayna, my bedsheet supplier, is just such a friend. On Sunday, I had the joy of going back down to San Diego to hang out for the day, and Shayna and I spent a very happy two hours in Anthropologie together. Half of that time was spent walking around the store looking at every single item and discussing its merits or flaws. The other half of the time was spent trying on a good twenty-plus dresses and buying none of them, much to the annoyance of the dressing room attendant (so sorry, lady, but we can’t afford any of your $300 lovelies!). Actually, it was mostly Shayna trying on dresses and me sitting in the dressing room staring at the insides of the dresses, studying their construction. I even learned a couple of things! For example, I always thought that hooks had to go into eyes, but I had problems with the eye showing at the top of a lapped zipper. Well, it turns out that hooks go just as well into thread “eyes,” which are much less visible. What a revelation!

This model must be seven feet tall for the hem to be above her knee.

Anyway, one of the dresses I did try on was the Tie-Neck Sweater Dress (I feel like their dresses usually have more interesting names than that), a sweater-knit color-blocked dress. I love the little bow tie detail and the cap sleeves, but I wasn’t a fan of the color blocking. The darker waist portion didn’t actually hit my waist, and the red of the skirt was not a good red for me. Also, it was way too long! It hit at a really awkward part of the leg, right at the largest part of my calf. A $158 dress that makes me look all out of proportion and emphasizes my burly calves? No thank you! But I did keep in mind that a medium-thickness, slim-cut sweater dress looks pretty good. Definitely not something I would have considered making before, but I went home inspired; I had the perfect rich red sweater knit at home for a sweater dress of my own.

Since the Sew Weekly Challenge this week was to sew something without a pattern, I decided to wing the dress. I’ve tried patternless garment sewing before, but have always had mixed results, probably because I’m always winging it. Anyway, I pulled out a fitted t-shirt of a similar knit weight and traced off a quick cap-sleeve pattern. I extended the bottom of the pattern in a vague A-line to get a good dress length.

The pattern I drew out on leftover fireplace paper.

In a frenzy of excitement, I whipped out my fabric and started laying it out. Unfortunately, in my excitement and the darkness of the floor of my sewing room, I laid out, cut, and stitched the whole dress wrong sides together. In other words, I made myself an inside-out dress. Fortunately, the knit was stretchier than I thought, so when I tried it on I realized I had enough ease to cut off the side seams and re-stitch it right sides together. Phew. After that I just cut a long rectangle for the collar ties and stitched that to the neckline. I ended up cutting a slit and in the front and facing it so that I could get my head through without totally staticking my hair every time. Finally, I turned the sleeves and hem under and stitched to finish it.

This red knit was ridiculously difficult to photograph because of the texture and the little black bits woven in.

This darker wine-red is closer to the actual color of the dress.

The finished dress: much better than the Anthro one, at least for me and my requirements.

Summary:

Fabric: One yard of 60” sweater knit from Michael Levine Loft (it was barely enough to finish the whole dress, but I did it! Much as I like having room to make mistakes, it is nice to not have any scraps leftover). I was originally saving this fabric for making a cardigan or shrug, but I think it works really well for this dress.  
Notions: None! Love the stretchy knit that requires no closures. 
Techniques used: Sewing with knit? Not sure if that really counts, although I did find this page helpful in choosing the correct stitch on my sewing machine. I do really wish I had a serger though! 
Hours: For making it up as I went, this went fairly quickly! I think it took me about 4 hours, but it would have been faster if the knit wasn’t ridiculously hard to keep on grain. Even so, I think it’s still slightly off.
Will you make this again? Maybe, if I find the right fabric! This dress is super easy and comfortable, after all. 
Total cost: $2! I love buying fabric by the pound! Also, much as I love full skirts, it’s amazing that one can make a whole fitted dress from just a yard of material.
Final thoughts:  This dress is perfect for the mild SoCal winter season! The sweater knit is just cozy enough with tights and boots and a cardigan, but not too bulky. I really like the rich red color and demure colar-and-bow-tie detail. I wish I had taken the time to get the grain perfect, but oh well.  I’m still wondering if I should do something to make the back more fitted, like maybe put a little strip of elastic to gather it a bit? Or I could just be lazy and call it finished.

So for $156 less, I have a sweater dress with all the details I love from the Anthro dress, but without any of the issues. Gosh, I love being able to sew. This was a really easy dress to make, aside from dealing with the mercurial grain of knits. If you’re interested in making your own, here’s an idea of what my pattern pieces looked like:

I'm normally a Burda size 34, Big Four size 10 or 12.

Or, there’s a pretty good tutorial/guide here, which I only discovered after I made my dress. Of course it would be that way!

Also, I am so glad that my husband is done with the quarter because not only is he less busy and stressed, it means that he's available to take pictures for me! It's so much easier than trying to balance the camera on things and running back and forth to see how the pictures turned out.

Look at his handsome shadow taking pictures for me!