Basically they find a pattern to sew a dress found elsewhere, in this case modcloth.com. I like dresses, and since I have trouble finding them long enough, this looked perfect. I bought the McCall's pattern only to find out that the view of the dress they used called for knit fabric. So, I searched for a knit gingham fabric and found one online that was blue gingham on one side, and blue/purple plaid on the other. When I got it, it turned out it wasn't a true knit fabric and didn't have enough to stretch to use it in the dress. I should have just returned it, but I would have lost out on shipping costs. So the incompatible pattern and fabric sat in my sewing room. When I started wearing maternity clothes this pregnancy, I only had a couple suitable things to wear to church. I thought of the fabric sitting upstairs and decided I would just make myself a dress with it.
I used the pattern for the collar, placket, and sleeves of the dress, and I hacked out the rest based on a long, collared maternity shirt. It turned out pretty well. Since the fabric was two sided, I used the reverse side for the collar placket, belt, and faux sleeve cuffs. I also added in slight bust seams to give it a little more shape in the front. It needs it in the back too, but I'm not going there. I improvised on the placket since I didn't want it to go the whole length of the dress. There must be some correct way to do it, but I did what I thought would work, and it mostly did. The dress also shrunk a little bit in the wash, but if anything, it fits a little better now. Maybe someday I'll prewash fabric.
Sorry, these are going to be awful photographs.
It was the first time I had made a collar like this, and you can definitely tell.
This project was the straw that broke the camel's back about getting a new sewing machine. See all that white thread? That's the bobbin thread "nesting." That happened about every third seam on this project, and required picking out every time, which usually damaged the fabric. It was a known issue with my machine.
2 comments:
I was wondering how this project turned out. It looks pretty cute!
It is pretty good in person, too.
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