Green and Black Polka Dot Viscose Separates

Hi all! Welcome back to another blog post read! Today’s blog post includes my review of this beautiful Lady McElroy Viscose Challis Fabric. This green and black polka dot fabric is perfect for adventurous beginners. This light-medium weight fabric have a smooth hand and silky finish with a fluid drape. It is perfect for dresses, skirts, and loose fitting blouses.

Patterns: 
Those of you who have been following me for any length of time know that I’m obsessed with separates, especially two piece matching sets that consists of a top and skirt. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity of using this fabric to make a matching set. Although it was quite the challenge because I was working with 2.5 yards of fabric. As you can imagine, my options were limited. 

I selected the Lottie Blouse Pattern by Simple Sew to make the blouse, and the New Look N6623 to make the skirt. The Lottie Blouse is a loose fitting top pattern that features a necktie, medium length sleeves with gathers on the sleeve head, and a keyhole opening near the lower end of the neckline.

The New Look N6623 skirt pattern was super easy. There are three variations that can be made with this pattern. Initially, I chose the view with the tie fronts. But I removed the ties because I didn’t like how they hugged my stomach. This pattern is easy for beginners who have no experience in sewing because it consists of one pattern piece for the front and the back, and no waistband is included with the pattern. The waist line is folded inward and stitched down, and a channel is created on the inside of the skirt to funnel the elastic.

Modifications: 
Although the Lottie Blouse pattern was easy to sew, I didn’t have any success with the keyhole opening. As a result, I modified the neckline and made a V neckline, and drafted front and back facings to finish off the neck edge of the garment. 

The sleeve pattern is meant to be gathered; however, I was uncertain as to whether it should be gathered because there wasn’t much fabric to gather in between the designated notches. During my first test, I found that the sleeves looked like they had puckers rather than gathers. At this point I decided to slash the pattern open and add more width to the sleeve head to create more gathers.

In regards to the skirt pattern, I made one modification to the waistline. I created a 2 1/4 inch wide waistband pattern and cut that pattern piece twice. I stitched the two waistband pieces together at the side creating side seams, folded the band in half and stitched it to the waistline of the skirt using 5/8” seam allowance. The finished waistband is narrow, approximately 5/8” in width.

Notwithstanding all the changes I had to make to the Lottie Blouse, I enjoyed making this top and I’m happy to have it in my wardrobe in the beautiful green and black polka dot fabric. 

Suggestions: 
Since this is a viscose challis fabric with a silky hand, I would recommend taking special care for this fabric. I personally pre-washed the fabric on a gently cycle with a gentle detergent (Woolite Delicates Detergent). In addition, the fabric was air dryed, and pressed on a low-heat setting. To prevent snags and pulling I used a 70/10 Microtex Schmetz needle designed for light weight woven fabrics. 

So that wraps up today’s blog post. I hope you enjoyed the read! Thanks for stopping by! Have a happy sewing week!
Tea