Wednesday 8 April 2015

My first dress

Hi again, in my last post, I said that I would share how I made my first dress.  Firstly I have to say that I really thought that dressmaking was sooooo difficult and something that other more talented people do.  So, after a spontaneous moment in Leeds market, I bought everything I needed to make my first dress:

3 mtrs cotton material

Bias Tape, navy thread, hook and eyes, 22 inch zip... and a bottle of wine for dutch courage!

That weekend, I went straight to work when I could and started it - I was originally going to make a small pillowcase dress for my daughter but hey, I like to start in the deep end...

Firstly, I went to work by ironing the fabric (me and irons do not get on so I'm glad this step went as smoothly as it did).  I then cut out the parts of the dress I was going to make from the pattern which I got free from Sew Magazine.

I then pinned the pieces like the pattern said to the material like so (see the dutch courage in the background?)
I then cut the pieces out with my fabric scissors as carefully as I could (although when I came to sew the dress, there were some wonky lines!)
After some more wine and an afternoon of playing with the kids, I went on to make the bodice of the dress by creating the pleats as instructed, sewing the shoulders and the sides together.  I was surprised at how simple the whole process was.  I then hemmed and sewed on the interfaces (which I forgot to take a pic of - sorry). 
The next day, I sewed the skirt which was really simple...
I was getting more and more exited that it was looking like a dress and also that I had made it.  Now was the proof in the pudding to match the top to the bottom ..  and it worked! Shocked was the word...
It took me a day to get over the fact that the top fitted with the bottom and that I had actually followed a dress pattern and made a dress! I left the zip until the next day.  I was soooo happy. 

I really recommend anyone to make that first step to get your machines out (or bought) and get sewing.  I am truly addicted and can totally see why people make anything and everything.  My next sewing project will be my daughter's dress which I was originally going to make.

1 comment:

  1. Love the step by step - and the dress is beautiful!!

    ReplyDelete