Riding the Bandwagon in the Kitschy Coo Lady Skater Dress

For many, many months I successfully resisted the urge to follow the crowd in making the Kitschy Coo Lady Skater dress, even though every member of the crowd had a very nice, flattering, simple but lovely dress to show for her efforts.

I kept thinking that surely (surely) with all the knit top and dress and skirt patterns I've got laying around here, I ought to be able to assemble the equivalent of this dress without purchasing yet another pattern. But deep in the most rational reaches of my brain, I knew it wasn't true. I wish I had the skill to combine different elements into a perfectly pleasing, yet completely simple, whole, but...well.

So I bought the PDF already, and I feel ironically better knowing that, yep, I couldn't have gotten the same result through my own pattern drafting efforts. Look at the way that skirt falls!

The fabric used here is a doubleknit in "deep mint" from FabricMart. It doesn't really have the 40% stretch specified by the pattern, so the bodice is a bit on the snug side, especially in the back.

I cut the size 3 in the shoulders and upper chest, tapering to size 4 for the waist and skirt. I shortened the bodice 1" total and then took an additional 5/8" swayback tuck at the center back.

This is the unaltered full-length sleeve with a narrower cuff than specified by the pattern. If you are taller than my 5'2", you may need to lengthen the sleeve, particularly if you prefer to turn up a hem rather than use a cuff.

I wore it with a corduroy jeans-style jacket for my day of substitute teaching for the eighth grade. Several girls said I looked "cute", which suggested the possibility of age inappropriateness, or else cheerful with-it-ness. I'm going to go with the latter!