Rey inspired knit fix

     Whew! That last post took a lot out of me. Cosplay time at PR&P is exciting stuff. So we decided to do Star Wars themed outfits; and I was trying to get them to pick out an example from a picture book we have with some Jakku villagers in these long flowy ensembles. Fern did not hesitate one second however when I asked her if any of those images inspired her. "I want to be Rey!" she informed me, although the heroine was not pictured anywhere on the picture we were looking at. Well, when she is that vehement about what she wants, who am I to interfere? Rey is another Jakku resident after all, so she technically answered the question asked. I was a little nervous that she would be peeved that I wasn't making an exact replica of Rey's gear, but Fern didn't mind a bit.
     After thinking about Rey, and also the fabrics I have and want to use, I settled on a striped knit from that August knitfix stash I have been wanting to use up. I drew these two pictures while thinking about it:

   I ended up going with the second one. I added some measurements that also came from the Maid Marion dress I mapped out while drafting Althea's hooded dress. The big difference though, was that this dress was made of knit fabrics (which I am still not totally used to) while the other two were both woven.  The fabric has a distinct two way stretch, not four, though, which I thought was a good thing. I was excited to try cutting the stripe at different angles to create some visual interest. I kept the waistband horizontal though, so that the stretch would go in the proper direction and the fabric would hopefully not be sagging down with the weight of the skirt. 

   When I designed this, I thought it was a dress. As it turns out, it is a tunic. There is virtually no underwear coverage involved in this design. But the sides of the tunic hang down low and she thinks it is really fun. 

 As you can see, the back drapes open (due to me not taking the stretch of the knit into account as much as I should have) but I like that element. This will be such a cool breezy top for her to wear this summer. (And next week when we are in Florida.....fingers crossed for some warm days!)

 I am pretty happy with that pattern matching!

 These orange striped leggings she had already; we had forgotten about them but they are the perfect match to this top! She loves that they are the right length to be "Rey" pants.

 The front was pretty drapey as well, but I sewed on a button (it is purely decorative; no button holes involved) and that solved that problem. I had an orange one that I thought would bring a BB8 element into the picture here, but she preferred the yellow one.

 We had to get some shots with Rey hair as well. And with her power staff.

      It is hard to see in these pictures, but the tops of the sleeves are slightly gathered. I have a serger now (glory be!) and I am slowly working my way through  trying / learning / increasing my comfort level with the different stitches and options. So I used the differential feed dog feature to try it out. Since this was the first time I had done this, I obviously was going to need to practice on some scrap fabric first, before I did it on my garment. But I decided, instead of scrap fabric, why not cut some little pieces out and make a version of this for her doll? I just held all the pieces up to the doll and did some snipping; no measuring, no stress. And practiced on the little doll dress. The gathering thing is actually super easy, but the gathers aren't that dramatic. I think I might still use my regular sewing machine for gathering in the future if I want larger gathers. But this certainly was easy and quick. 

So.... here she is with her doll twin

There is a glimpse to be had in this picture of how she looked a few years ago. Looking down gives the illusion of the chubbier cheeks of days gone by. sniff. 

 And with her sister.

Thanks for stopping by!