I love the Raspberry and Lime cotton jersey from New Threads Quilt Shop. I was wearing the tee top in this fabric when I returned to the shop and purchased the final length from the roll that they had in store – 2.25 metres on ‘sale’ at £5.00 per metre. On returning home the fabric was immediately washed and by the end of the afternoon had been dried and pressed ready for cutting out.

I was going to ‘hack’ the Paola polo neck top into a dress Monetta-style. I traced off the bodice and sleeve of the Paola. Traced the waistline and then added 5/8 th inch seam allowance. I also made a sway back adjustment to the back bodice. There would not be sufficient fabric for a long sleeve, the pattern was cut with a 6 inch underarm seam. The skirt was cut from the Monetta pattern with the back skirt cut at the selvedge so would have to have a seam.

Stitching was straightforward and I am particularly pleased with the shaping of the scoop neckline which was done entirely freehand. I gathered the skirt using ½ inch wide clear elastic and a triple zig-zag stitch to secure the elastic to the top edge of the skirt panels. The sleeves are a little longer than I really wanted and so they have a 1½ inch turning which was then top stitched with the twin needle. Thereby is a happy accident. I had not changed the stitch setting when I threaded up the twin needle. Thus the hem stitching on the sleeves is decorative with two rows of the triple zig zag stitch. I repeated this stitch when turning up the hem of the skirt and I think it makes a very nice feature.

I have one more Dartmouth wrap front top cut out and once that is stitched I plan to revert to 100% woven cotton fabrics for a while – at present I am jersey knit fabric’d out!