Kobayashi Squiggle Squares TNT Midi Dress

This dress is largely based on my TNT pattern. The difference this time is that I used the length, hem width and V-neckline of the Style Arc Toni Designer dress. As this dress is a mash up of patterns used before I wasn't going to bother with a blog post for it but then thought others might like to see how I take my TNT pattern and make it into something else.

I enjoyed the V-neck of the Toni dress and wanted a longer more pencil skirt shape for this dress to maximise fabric use. A fitted dress was also better suited to this robust cotton twill fabric.

The finished garment

This has been worn a lot since it was made. No matter which shoes I wear for the week this dress goes with them, especially these United Nude Zink Patch Mid Pop Mix boots.

The squiggle squares sort of match up across the body and sleeves.

Not sure why I have such a horizontal fold of fabric across my back in the photos because you don't notice it when I am wearing the dress in real life.

The squiggle squares are not a straight line which made matching them at the side seams pretty impossible. They sort of match on the left side but are way out on the right side.

Left: original V neckline; Right modified square neckline

The only thing that bothered me about the dress after it was made was the V-neckline. It didn't really suit the shape of the squiggle squares. It was a bit of a faff but it irritated me enough to make the change to a more square neckline. The plunge of the neckline is now deeper than I would normally choose and was dictated by the depth of the original V-neckline. I am just hoping that it can be worn with any bra as I hate clothes that require specific underwear.

The fabric

This fabric is a cotton twill from Japanese fabric manufacturer Kobayashi, purchased from Cutting Line Designs (SKU: FF-00865) and still available! Purchased after falling down the fabric rabbit hole instead of sticking to the pattern section.

The pattern

This dress is an amalgamation of three patterns. My TNT dress pattern is Silhouette Patterns Traditional Blouse view 2 blended into the 3-piece Yoga skirt. This incarnation is mixed up with the StyleArc Toni Designer dress.

The pattern alterations

As already mentioned my TNT dress pattern was adapted to mid-calf rather than knee length with a V-neckline. Having recently made the StlyeArc Toni Designer dress this was the pattern I chose for both the length, hem width and V-neckline.

Left: front pattern pieces; Right back pattern pieces

Hopefully you can see the dress pattern pieces overlaid on the Toni Designer dress (yes a PDF pattern I have actually taped together). The front pattern piece appears longer than the back because my TNT pattern has a bust dart and I needed to compensate for this so the side seam front and back would be the same length. I did add 1" to the length of the Toni dress because I wanted a deeper hem for this woven dress.

The other change I made was to create full size pattern pieces so that I could achieve good pattern placement of the squares on the dress.

I cut the pattern in both the outer and lining fabric for the front and back body pieces but only cut the sleeves from the squiggle squares fabric.

The sewing

This was a very quick project even though I effectively made two dresses.

The darts were sewn in both lining and outer fabric. For the waist darts they were pressed in opposite directions in the lining and outer fabrics to minimise bulk.

Both the dress and the lining were sewn separately on the overlocker at the shoulder and side seams. Then the outer and lining fabric were sewn at the neckline with right sides together, and the neckline under-stitched.

The sleeves were sewn in the round with french seams. So apart from the sleeve seam all the seams are enclosed.

The sleeve is machine hemmed but I hand catch-stitched the dress hem.

Today a few weeks after the dress was finished I unpicked the neckline (under-stitching and seam). Re-drew the neckline to be squarer at centre front, with a four-inch base curving back to the original shoulder neck edge. I then sewed a cream bias binding around the right-side of the neck edge, under-stitched it and folded it to the inside. Any minute now (or at least sometime this week before I wear it) I will hand-stitch it in place to the lining.

And here it is a week later with the binding stitched down and wrinkles fresh from the wash