New Love and New Look 6968

I realised today I hadn't blogged about my new love. She's a mid 1960s Singer 348, in her own sweet table. I bought her at auction, got her serviced and have been sewing away for a couple of months now. She came with cute little matching blue tool and a dozen cams for decorative stitches. She handles all thicknesses of fabric and I love the adjustable presser foot pressure. I've always wanted that, and now I have it. Sweet!
My other machine has been relegated to buttonhole service. Fortunately all my Janome presser feet fit the Singer, yay!
Here she is:

Lovely isn't she?

I used her yesterday and today to make New Look 6968. The fabric is a stretch bengaline, shocking pink shot with black, for a dupioni-like two-tone effect. It photographs a wine colour, but it looks more interesting in real life I think.

It turned out okay, but this frock is in my bad books a little due to the horrific collar instructions. I'm a bit traumatised. Apart from that, I didn't cut the collar pieces on the bias because I'm a smartypants who thought the stretch fabric would negate the need for bias. Learn from my mistake...the collar really should be cut on the bias so it sits properly. Mine doesn't and it's annoying.

The collar instructions are still horrific. I stand by that.

I only did a 1cm hem on this frock, it was this length straight out of the envelope. If you want it longer, or you're tall, you will need to lengthen the skirt pattern pieces. I usually have to cut off at least 5cm in length on New Look, so this worked for me, but check first if it's right for you!

Look what I found at Spotlight! A dead ringer for scribbly knit, but in a nice thick ponte! I had to have it, and I've already cut out another New Look 6968, with the plain neckline this time!

I'm posting this from my iPhone, using blogger+, so apologies for the dodgy phone pics. If this works, I'm going to force Moggy to get it and to post about fabric shopping when she's in Europe next month.

Edited to add a clearer pic of the frock.