Who Says I Can't Do It Myself?

So this project started this past January when I was in Kohls and found this really PERFECT dress. IT WAS GORGEOUS. I took a picture of it on myself and everything. I even think the price was about right. BUT it had a few places that were slightly iffy on it, so I decided that by making it myself I could fix the bad parts. It took my about a month to find the right pattern and material, but I finally started it around April...... I think. My memories of this spring are a little hazy (hey I was working 50+ hours a week) so I could be a little off...... say by a month or so.

Anyway, I apparently deleted the pic of the dress so there will be no comparison photos. Sad day :(

So I shall launch straight into a show and tell episode! And because my camera is whacking out I could only take pics when I was done and those are bad quality. Yes I spend more money on cloth and patterns than technology. Deal with it.

First I found a sundress pattern  from New Look #E6699. It is a very versatile, mix and match pattern and I think I'll be getting a lot of use from it. It has 2 skirt patterns, 2 waist patterns, and  10+ bodice patterns, which means I have about 2745648 combinations of dresses to make. Nice to know I shall not lack for variety...

I used the sleeveless bodice in combination with the flat waist (as opposed to a gathered waist) and the pencil skirt, in order to have it resemble the other dress as closely as possible. The skirt was the easiest part to cut out so I finished it quickly (making sure to lengthen it some), but the bodice and waist posed more of a problem.

First the bodice was wider than I needed. Originally it was meant to make the dresses have a natural waistline. I have two problems with that: 1. That's not how the other dress was and 2. I'm short, so natural waistline dresses make me look like I have no waistline. At all.

So what was my solution? I slashed the width of the waist in half. Problem solved :) But there were a few more problems which I shall address later......

The bodice worked with me pretty well. I did encounter a few problems with the fabric bunching but thanks to this link I found on pinterest I eliminated that little problem. I had to raise the neckline for the purposes of modesty and lower the bottom edge so that the seam didn't go right across my bustline. Because that would just look AWKWARD. I also made sure to iron the straps REALLY WELL because if I don't they usually end up looking like the fabric died and then resurrected only to be used in one of my sewing projects. This is what I came up with:

Looks good right? Now this brings me back to my second little problem which was that the dress I was copying had a bow in the back and this pattern had no way of helping me with that. Silly pattern not anticipating my needs! So I grabbed the nearest loose dress ties, measured, cut, and sewed. The first try was a disaster. Too wide and too short. I would be too embarrassed to show you photos. I do, however learn from my mistakes, so I remeasured, recut and resewed. These ones turned out much better. Next time I shall try to make them wider, because once again they did kind of come out looking the fabric that died and resurrected. I'll work on it, I promise......

Those last two pics are of the seams where I added the straps. The pattern wasn't exactly friendly when it came to installing those straps, but I made it work. Once again sorry for the poor quality....

After that it was pretty much a cinch to finish. Sure I had a little fiasco for a few days with my sewing machine. It seems to think it will only sew a straight stitch when I know it has 37645 other functions, but when I try to change things up it insists on throwing a temper tantrum for at least a week. Sewing machines really are the most finicky creatures...But I finished the hem, sewed the skirt to the bodice, and even managed to put in a decent zipper (even though I cheated a little and used an invisible zipper).

Maybe not quite invisible, but for me, this is doing good......

In the end it turned out PERFECTLY. I was even impressed with myself. Want to see?

Once again SORRY FOR THE POOR QUALITY. Beyond the yellow tint the camera casts on everything That is a black dress, yellow waist and black skirt with white polka dots.

It is a PERFECT dress, fits like a glove! Like a glove. Alright I'll admit it the skirt was way too tight. Not horribly tight, but just tight enough to be indecent. But, the dress is finished and it is October. Am I going to wear this dress anytime soon? So, my solution is to toss it into my closet, wait until spring (at which time hopefully I will have dropped a few pounds) and let out the seams and a few darts then. I promise to post more pictures (BETTER PICTURES) then. Until then, keep reading! There are many more adventures to come!!

Winter Wonderland (Preview)

    I have a new quest!! ANOTHER friend is getting married (I think a lot of my posts will start this way) I have decided to make my dress for her wedding!! Of course I kinda have to because I swore no more store-bought clothes..... Anyway, it gets me excited to be sewing again! (I swear I have been sewing, I just haven't finished anything yet!) 

   One thing that suddenly struck me was that if I am going to be making all my own clothes I need to be planning ahead for special events like this or I will be wearing something old (oh, the horror!!). 

   Back to the dress. Joannes opened a new store in my town and are having this humongous sale which means I get some of their best materials dirt cheap. Hehehe :) I already went in once, stared at patterns, stared at ALL THE FABRIC and went brain dead. I finally found a pretty material I liked, but I had no image in my head of what I wanted the dress to be. (It is important for me to have that image or the whole thing goes to waste). Afterwards I got home and was mulling it over when inspiration struck (Oh joyous day!). After spending a few hours on pinterest and google I have gathered some of the basics of my pattern. Can you guess what I will do? 

Friend of the Bride Dress :)

My first little adventure!! My dear friend was getting married and I needed a dress for her wedding! The color was royal blue, which is very hard to find right now because the fashion gods have dictated for all women to wear only navy blue this year. Fiends! I finally ended up in David's Bridal and found the right dress, for too much money, and not enough coverage in the front. Needless to say, I bought it knowing I could work my own magic on it :)

So here is what I had to work with:

It was pretty good I just needed a little something for that front and, of course, I absolutely refused to wear a camisole under it. Nothing could make such a beautiful dress look more tacky. Besides the straps would show. So taking my cues my the dress' folded and draped appearance, I went out and bought some satin/silk ribbon. I then folded it and pinned it together like so:

When I checked it against the dress I decided that there were too many ruffles, so I took it apart and made fewer, larger, ruffles. Less is more they say!

I then hand-sewed a simple running stitch as close to the bottom of the ruffles as possible. Sorry, no pictures for this part. The important thing is to make sure not to pull the pins out before you have sewed a part and keep it as close to the edge as possible. Then I laid it in the dress and oriented it so I could have the ruffles where I wanted them. I pinned it and whipstiched it into place.

You can see how he ruffles are larger in the first picture. *Another hint* When sewing into an expensive dress like this you don't want the stitches to show through the front. It looks horrible and ruins the dress. Usually there will be a backing material and you want to make sure you stitched in that. If you don't have backing material, I suggest you find another way to alter the dress or give up.

Make sure you stitch the top parts to the sides of the dress so the ruffles don't flop around. If you do it right, it looks beautiful!

The finished product!! I got many compliments and people said if they didn't know I had done it, they would have guessed it was a natural part of the dress. It only took about half an hour/ an hour altogether and was fairly simple to do! Give it a try and send me pics of your attempts!!!

There is a purpose for this. I am a normal woman. I shop for my clothes. But shopping is often a lengthy and frustrating process. I can spend spend two hours in a store and only come out with one or two items because of price, size, style, or immodesty. This past winter I was especially frustrated because I was shopping for a new wardrobe. Everything that I was trying on didn't flatter me, didn't fit me, or was completely immodest.

So I have made a decision. I am saying goodbye to the world's standard of modesty. I am saying goodbye to the modern clothing industry. They have failed to provide a proper service to me. I will turn my back on them, raise my head and loudly proclaim:


SINCE YOU CAN'T DO IT RIGHT I'LL DO IT MYSELF!