Red Elisalex skater dress from By Hand London

Everyone needs a new dress for Christmas, right? This was mine.

It’s inspired by the skater dresses you can see all over the high street. In fact it’s almost identical to this ASOS one.

When did full skirts start being called ‘skater’, by the way? I think it must be an ice-skating ref instead of a skateboarding thing. A bit more ‘Winter Olympics’ than ‘Vans Warped Tour’. Anyone want to shed light on this important issue?

Anyway my skater dress is made from ponte knit from Tissu Fabrics (£5 a metre!) and the Elisalex dress bodice from By Hand London. Here’s my verdict on both:

• The fabric is easy to sew, and forgiving to wear. But blimey, it’s a bit crackly and static-y. Wearing tights underneath makes the skirt unbelievably clingy.
• The Elisalex bodice is a beaut. I cut a size 10 to account for stretch, and I love it. So easy to fit. I used a half-circle skirt (the tutorial was also from the By Hand London website, so thanks ladies!)

I like the deep V on the back on this dress, but next time will widen the shoulders a bit.

This dress was worn for my work do, a friend’s  annual Christmas dinner, and the big day itself. Not bad for a tenner’s worth of fabric and an invisible zip.

I put clear elastic in the neckline and the waistband, and actually CHANGED THE THREAD in my overlocker to match the fabric, for the first time since I got the thing. Which was, er, more than a year ago. Shameful.

Okay, can I ask for some help from any fitting experts out there? I quite often get these pesky folds in the back shoulder. Here’s an illustrative photo with some giant red arrows.

I think it’s something to do with my prominent shoulderblades and general posture. I looked in Fit for Real People and they called it the ‘hunchback’ fitting problem, which made me want to just give up. I’m open to advice though, don’t hesitate if you think I need the well-known ‘Quasimodo alteration’ or similar.

I’m happy with the dress though. Nothing more cheerful than red in the winter.

I’d use this knit again, despite the static. I fancy trying to replicate this Topshop dress in a few colours, maybe a blue and a marled grey.

You can buy the Elisalex dress pattern here, and the fabric I used here.

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