Dress making part 2

Most people probably enjoyed a nice relaxing bank holiday weekend in the UK (Well, not the leader who took some of our Guides on a county camp. I suspect she enjoyed a very tiring weekend) but I was stuck at work for 2 of the 3 days so didn't get much sewing done. That's the problem with starting at 4am. I can never be bothered to do much apart from sleep after an 8 hour shift!

Sunday was designated a sewing day though and instead of choosing the sensible option of just finishing something I decided to go for part 2 of making the dress.

I put all my pattern pieces on my fabric - very impressed because I bought too much fabric so I have some spare that I'm sure can be used for a bag or something.

I then wandered to my sewing machine and sewed all my darts in and my pleats. Easy! the hardest bit that seemed to take forever was transferring all the markings to the fabric from the pattern. I must find a better way to do this!

Then it was time to join the tops and bottoms together. At this point I realised why instructions always say 'seam ripper needed'. I sewed this seam 3 times! The first time I forgot I had it on a very long stitch for basting. The 2nd time I caught the material when sewing (see pic) and the 3rd time I finally managed it. Luckily the other 3 pieces were done without as much hassle.

And look at this! the back of my dress all sewn together. Not quite the way the pattern says because I'm an idiot and ordered supplies after watching the Great British Sewing Bee so I ordered an invisible zip instead of a normal one. Never mind, I found it rather easy to insert after a quick glance at a youtube video and I think the result is a rather invisible zip! I've now decided any more clothing I make will have an invisible zip.

And look! Here is the dress on me and it actually fits! It still isn't finished though. I've yet to do the neck facing or the armhole facing but that shouldn't be too bad after the trauma of the zip! It will be my first attempt at playing with interfacing but that will be a good practise for when I make a bag. Because I am determined that I will make a weekender bag at some point.

My only possible problem with this dress is the neck. It just seems to have a lot of fabric loose around it but maybe the neck facing will sort that out. I have a friend who's mum is a seamstress who has promised to look at the pattern for me to see if we can't just make it a V neck instead.

So now I get to look around and pick fabric to make the real thing. I'm rather torn between this, this and this. of course I have no idea which is the best fabric for a dress and they are all very different!

I've also discovered bloglovin' since the last post. What a handy way to read the blogs I follow when I'm on the go on my ipad or iPhone  So if anyone would like to follow me on there then I have a little linky button that hopefully will appear under here and will work!

Thanks for reading!

(Oh and yes, I did stay inside sewing on what was possible the nicest day we are going to see in the north east of England this year as you can see from the sun in my photos!)

Alex attempts a dress part 1...

Well I'm back and I've started my dress making attempt. The pattern I'm using is Simplicity pattern 2444 which I got free with a magazine.
All of the goodies I'd ordered for my dress making have arrived over the past few days and I've gathered all my supplies together. I bought an invisible zip foot for my sewing machine (before noticing the pattern doesn't call for an invisible zip - just a normal one. Oh well...) and some fabric and a zip. Everything else I had hanging around all ready. (excuse the Christmas table cloth that apparently never made it off our dining room table!)

My goodies - the great British Sewing Bee book, some calico for my first attempt at a dress, some tracing paper so i don't ruin my pattern, and my pattern I got free.

I decided to lay out my pattern on the floor of our lounge and to trace over the pieces I needed so that I could use the pattern again (not that I plan to get any bigger with doing this insanity workout) just in case I made any mistakes. Of course I had to gain some cans to weigh it all down. For future reference this tracing paper was awful to see through. I think next time I must find something much thinner.

all laid out to be traced

I also quickly discovered that my ability to trace objects and draw in a straight line is almost non existent so I'll have to work on that. Tracing all the bit i needed took 2.5 sheets of tracing paper. I suspect with a bit of fiddling I could of used less, although this is just the very basic version of the dress with no fancy collar or sleeves or belt.

1st few pieces all traced

Luckily although i can't draw in a straight line I can cut in one so I managed to save the templates with my wonderful cutting skills. I'm pleased I remembered to write all the pattern numbers on and the names when I added the markings of I suspect I'd be baffled next time.

All cut out and ready to pin to fabric

That's me done for the day. Unlike in the Great British Sewing bee I'm not about to make a dress in a crazy amount of time (although I suspect I could have this done in a day if I really put my mind to it).

Next time around pinning and cutting my fabric then I finally get to sew! yay!