So I haven't gotten my machine out since I moved into this new apartment - which means it's been a very long time since I've sewn anything. Sad day! I realized this not too long ago, and so naturally, I went to browse pinterest. Well, okay, I was browsing pinterest anyway, it just worked out this way.
Anyway, so I was browsing and saw a tutorial for a dress. I've been dress hunting for a while - specifically for something to wear to Nix's sister's high school graduation in June. I searched ModCloth for a while but wasn't finding anything that I was completely in love with for this occasion. But then I found this tutorial, and I said, "hmm. that is a cute dress!" So on Friday I headed over to one of my favorite stores (yes, I'm biased because I get awesome discounts there because it's where Nix works) and bought a tank top for about $5.
Late Saturday afternoon I went to the fabric store (and it's aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamazing. I hadn't been to this one before and now I'm signed up for ALL THE COUPONS. Poor husband.
) and found the material I wanted for the skirt. I also had to buy new pins - the ones I have would have left visible holes in the material I ended up getting. I went with more of a chiffon-like material, so the skirt is super flowy. It was also my first time sewing with elastic thread... I didn't even know that was a thing!!! I mean... It's magical! A pain in the ass to get threaded properly, but magical!!So I got all my stuff home and washed all the materials. I may or may not have gotten a little tipsy Saturday night, so I didn't sew until Sunday morning. It took forever - but only because I had to dig up all of my stuff (machine, scissors, pedal, thread, bobbin box...) and I felt like I was excavating some of the stuff out. And then I would get back downstairs (because my sewing table isn't set up yet, I used the kitchen table) with my load of stuff and realize I forgot something else. Eventually I got it sorted out, and got to work. I wish I had taken more pictures while I was sewing... oh well.
I cut tank top basically in half first. Then I figured out how much of the material I needed to wrap around my butt, and I had to do it twice. The patterned fabric I picked is pretty sheer, so I lined it with a white chiffon-y type fabric. It turned out SUPER cute once I remembered what the heck I was doing with the machine - I had a bit of a brain fart it had been so long since I had it out.
The hardest parts about the project:
1) Getting the elastic thread threaded properly so it had enough tension. The trick with elastic thread is first, you have to hand wind the bobbin. (Elastic thread only goes on your bobbin, not on the top thread.) Then you have to make sure (depending if it's a front-loader or a top-loader) the thread catches in the exact right little nook so it stays taught while you're sewing, otherwise you get spaghetti on the wrong side of your fabric and it isn't stretchy at all. Fortunately I thought ahead and had a bunch of scrap material to practice on.
Once you get the thread to catch, though, it's super easy! And amazing!2) Hemming. I'm short (160cm) and the fabric I got comes on a bolt that's 54" wide. While fantastic in most cases, it made hemming a pain. I decided to do it after I attached the skirt to the tank top, but then I got the dress on and said - "oh crap. how do I pin this sucker??" Lucky for me, husband walked in right about then and he put in two pins for me (one for the lining and the other for the pretty fabric). I'm a lucky girl! (He had problems getting the pins in, though. I laughed a bit.)
Oh, and the transition between the tank top and the fabric looks a little weird. It's all bunchy and not cute, so I took some of the extra material from my hemming and made a sash to tie around it. It looks much better with that on. If I had a nice wide belt, that would also look pretty awesome with it, I think.
ANYWAY. Overall, it was fun - and I have already planned to make at least one more for myself, and possibly some for a few of my friends. I wore it to church that evening and people kept saying how cute my dress was. Made me feel awesome, because hey! I made it!!
So I told 3 of the girls that if they bought the material, I would make them a dress. I feel like it would be hard to sell these dresses to the people of the internet, though, because there isn't an exact science to measuring how much fabric you need for the skirt. You just... wrap it around you. But it's fun! And I'm glad I'm sewing again. It's inspiring me to finally make some projects I've had on the back-burner for a while (*cough*over a year*cough*).Anyway, picture! Because I know you want one.
Nice job 