My First Coco Dress
I have little experience in knit fabric sewing and it's because I'm not comfortable sewing knit fabric! It's something that scares me... But I wanted to conquer that fear and explore the world of knit sewing more.
And nothing is more perfect than Coco dress pattern for a knit sewing beginner!
Coco dress is designed by Tilly from Tilly and the Buttons. I have her first book, "Love At First Stitch" and I love it. (Just FYI, her second book is coming out next year and I'm really excited!)
I got a printed version just because that's what I prefer when it comes to garment patterns. I purchased mine from Blackbird Fabrics, my favourite Canadian online fabric store.
So what makes this pattern beginner friendly, you might ask.
First, the design is simple (yet really pretty!) Second, the instruction that comes with is very thorough. And, she has step-by-step sewalong guide on her blog! (Coco Sewalong is here.)
I really appreciate indie designers who provide sewalongs for their patterns, it's like taking a workshop for free! It's so generous.
Thanks to all those instructions provided, I was able to put together my first Coco dress fairly quickly.
While there's still a room for improvement of my sewing skill, I'm actually pretty happy with the result! My fear for knit fabric has definitely gotten smaller!
I don't have a serger (over locker), so I used a zigzag stitch as suggested on Tilly blog, using a regular sewing machine. It might not as clean as the stitches done by a serger, but I kind of think it looks cute.
I made this dress with my old machine which was about $150 that I got 9-10 years ago. I recently got (gifted by hubby!) a much better sewing machine that came with a walking foot and twin needle option. So I'm excited to try more methods of sewing knit fabric with the new machine to see if they make any improvements.
I love the shape of this pattern! I think I could've gone a size smaller around the neck opening and the shoulder, but other than thatI like the fit. I would definitely make more Cocos in the future!
Nov 7, 2017
