I have a vintage dress that I had in mind to imitate. The contrast between it and my effort is quite comical.
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This might have been the first thing I made--other than Halloween costumes for my kids--when I started sewing again as an adult. I must be tenacious of life! Such a disaster and yet I kept sewing. Go figure. Ha ha ha. Hysterical. What is even funnier is what I was imagining. I thought satiny underlayer with a chiffon overlayer. Dreamy. I'm not the only one who thought to take this pattern in that direction--there are some posts on the Burda site from people who did exactly that. They bemoan their disastrous results, but their dresses are quite lovely, and honey, you haven't seen disaster until you have seen this dress. I have a vintage dress that I had in mind to imitate. The contrast between it and my effort is quite comical. I made a belt thinking it might help. Uh, no. No, I never bothered to hem it. Would you?
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I have had a love-hate-love-hate relationship with this dress. I searched long and hard for a sheath dress pattern that would make the one dress I wanted to make more than any other. My Holy Grail Dress. It all began one day many years ago when I tried on a sheath dress in a Marshall's thinking it would never work on me. I had never put on a close-fitting, straight-up-and-down dress in my life. On a whim, maybe because is was a nice wool fabric with a lining, I took it to the dressing room and tried it on. I felt like I was in heaven. It felt great and looked great. And yet I did not buy that dress. Later I would kick myself. Why why why did I not buy that dress? Once I started sewing again, it hit me that I could make that dress! I got several patterns. Made a few muslins. None seemed right. I couldn't seem to adjust anything without it looking disastrous. It went on and on. I decided to find someone to teach me some fitting skills. I found Heidi at a place called Stitch Cleveland, her shop. (It is since gone.) We looked at my candidate patterns and decided quickly on New Look 6909--it conformed most closely to my measurements. We made a couple small adjustments--we took off about 5/8" from the top shoulder seam, lowering the bottom of the armscye by the same, to accommodate my shorter-than-the-pattern torso. She took in the back darts when we fitted the muslin, lengthening them, and I think elevating them a bit. I can't remember now how we fit my hips. Surely I did not fit the pattern out of the envelope from shoulders to hips. C'est impossible. My hips are two sizes larger. But I just don't remember making any adjustments there. We also put in a full lining instead of the facings (yuck!). The fabric is some polyester woven from Joann's. I had to find it quickly since I had an appointment with Heidi and could not find the wool gabardine I had bought months before when I started the quest. (I did find it later, like a year later, in the coat closet hanging on a hanger.) When I finished the dress, I was very pleased. The quality of the construction was high (thanks, Heidi!). It fit me like a glove. Actually, I was 10 pounds lighter then, so I am stretching this garment's limitations right now. However, I did not like the fabric. I did not like the width of the shoulders--they fell off my arms sometimes and I have to wear a thin-strapped brazziere or else it will show. But one day I pulled it out and wore it to work and I've been wearing it regularly since. It's funny how something can fit so closely to one's figure and yet be comfortable to wear. I fancied I looked pretty good with my form-fitting sheath dress. That is, until I took a picture of myself and saw the figure that was being fitted. Yikes I am quite askew. One angle looks like a fertility goddess and another looks like Quasimodo. I am in the midst of making this dress again. I am trying to use Susan Khalje's techniques from the Couture Dress class at Craftsy. I am having such a hard time getting the markings onto the organza. I have tried twice now and when I pull up the carbon the organza has shifted or shifts and everything is off. I have not cut the fashion fabric yet. I am not sure how to get the organza to behave. I'm thinking of going rogue and using the muslin to cut the fashion fabric and then setting the cut-out organza pieces on top
When I first made this jumper, I was so thrilled. It was probably the first thing I ever made with a lining (I guess I made it about three years ago). The zipper looked great. The fabric is a darling corduroy print, black with little red and gray dots. The lining is deep red and a bit of it pokes out around the neckline. A mistake but it looks like piping and I think it is cool.
But eventually I realized it is too tight across the bust and the hips. And the corduroy hangs straight out from the hips and looks silly, I think, especially when it's hugging the high hip and behind. I love corduroy, but I will be careful about what patterns I use with it from now on. I have made this dress twice now. The first one is from a poly knit fabric I bought at Joann's. It's purple with gray flowers. The colors look great on me and I get a ton of compliments when I wear the dress. I made it a year or two ago so I don't remember any disasters. I think it went together smoothly. I used my new serger on it. I think it's funny that it doesn't matter which way I put it on; there's no real front or back. Even though this is polyester, it feels nice and it's held up through several washings and still looks good. So I made version #2 a couple months ago. I love about everything lined so I thought I would line this version. It's a poly patterned knit from Gorgeous Fabrics. I got a matching solid fabric (you know how she recommends stuff to go with what you're looking at), so I thought I'd break up the hypnotic pattern at the waistband and ruffle. Then I decided to make a strip and bind the sleeve hems and the neckline. I think it turned out nice looking, but there are a number of disasters
associated with this dress. First the lining. It's this thin fairly inexpensive white poly knit I get from Joann's for linings with knit. But it was a real pain to sew the two knit fabrics together. Well, actually it started earlier than the sewing stage, because even though things were cut from exactly the same pattern pieces do you think they were identical? Of course not. I was sewing. The lining was nearly half an inch shorter at the hem. Fortunately, I could shorten the front and back skirts so the lining was enclosed in the seams between all the pieces. I ended up basting all the lining and fabric pieces together before sewing. Knits are not supposed to be that hard! Next disaster is that it is slightly tight. Is that because I added the lining? Is it because the white poly is not so stretchy? Is it that I can't tell where in the heck the serger is putting the seam? Is it because I have put on 10 pounds? Who knows? Another aggravation was that the patterned fabric either stretched in my washer (a front loader, so I don't see why it would) or was stretched when I got it but didn't notice. So there are some areas on it where I can tell things look a little thin. Final and worst disaster is the neckline. It droops. And it doesn't matter which way I put it on. Something about the binding. I folded over a strip of fabric, serged it to the neckline, folded it over, and straight stitched on my sewing maching two rows. I probably took all the springiness out of the fabric. It's a bummer. Addendum disaster is that the color is hard to match with anything in my possession but black. And that kinda kills the fresh look of the thing. |
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