Sorry for the long absence! I've been procrastinating a little lately. I've been working on this dress for several weeks now, and it's been sitting in my apartment with just the zipper left to install. Today I finally finished it!
This is, by far, my most ambitious project yet. I designed this dress myself, made a pattern from scratch, and spent a lot of time making sure it looked tailored and perfect. I had originally wanted to make a color-block dress, but when I went to the fabric store, I saw this floral print and fell in love! So, I changed the design a little to be more appropriate for floral linen fabric. Here's how I did it:
I did most of this in the middle of the night- hence the bad picture lighting. Sorry.
I started with the skirt, since that's the easiest part. I pinned a bunch of little, one-inch pleats all the way across and sewed them in place.
Then I measured out the hem and sewed that down- making sure it was exactly the same height all the way across.
This took a while because my cat decided to help...ahem, mess up all my ironing. Remember, this is linen, so like the slightest breeze would cause it to wrinkle...you can imagine what a chubby cat would do to it. .
Now comes the hard part- the bodice. I've never made anything like this before, so I was super intimidated. I took another dress that had a similar style and traced the bodice on some paper to create the pattern. This I used for the back piece.
After cutting out this piece, I traced it on a silky thin fabric that I used for the lining. I then sewed these pieces together and turned them inside out to finish the back piece.
I used this pattern again for the top front piece, but made the neck line lower and the length shorter- since this would only go down to about my armpits, with a piece of the floral fabric covering the bust. I did the same thing with the lining fabric too, sewing around the edges and turning it inside out. Here's what the finished pieces looked like:
I pinned them along the shoulders and one of the sides and sewed them together. I left one side open for the zipper.
Then using some more tissue paper, I drew out a pattern for the bust piece. I didn't take a picture of it, but here I'm using the iron to fold down the sides, which I would then attach to the front of the bodice that I already created.
This is how it looked after I sewed the front pieces together. I also put darts in the front, so it would fit appropriately along the bust line.
I then made a sash to go across the waist. I didn't take a picture of this- sorry. I forget to take pictures sometmes...
Then I attached the skirt and the bodice to the waist sash, leaving one side open for the zipper. Also don't have pictures for this step either. I'm a terrible blogger.
After this point, my life got busy and I took a break from the dress for a couple weeks. Finally, today I got off my lazy butt and finished it! So here's a picture of me installing the zipper:
It went about half-way down and then I sewed the edges together inside.
After a couple adjustments, re-ironing and steaming it, and cutting threads, it was finished!!
Here's a picture of the bodice, so you can get a better look at the best part, in my opinion!
I'm very happy with the outcome, and i think I'm ready for more advanced projects!
Sorry this took so long. This is how my procrastination goes:
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