Completed heart dress

Finally I found time to do that hem and can I say, oh how I hate blind hemming, especially when you're dying to get the garment finished! I ended up using bias binding on the hem which was great because it meant that I only had to take up a quarter of an inch on the hem but the bias binding supports it. So it's done! And I thought I would wear it today but it poured it down all day so it wasn't really suitable weather :-( Anyway, here are the pictures for you, I've cut my head out of a few because I'd been for a run before taking the pics and looked awful. It doesn't look too different to how it was before but I hope the pics are a little better than the last ones!

I like this pic, a bit arty I thought!

It's not quite finished... but some pics anyway

I've spent a couple of hours this afternoon making the adjustments I mentioned yesterday, which included the midriff seams not lining up with the bodice on one side, so I unpicked, re-adjusted and re-sewed. I've also attached the skirt to the midriff today and basted the back centre seams and pinned on the zip! I tried to dress on after I'd pinned the zip on and it was gaping quite a lot at the top of my back, I assume that's probably due to having narrow shoulders and an overly curved back. So I took it off and tapered the back centre seams at the top of the dress, put it on again and voila! it fits much better :-)

Of course I couldn't resist taking a few pictures so here are a few obligatory university bathroom pictures to give you a sneak peak of how it's looking. I'm planning to do the hemming when I'm at home (though I might change my mind!) so I will make sure that I get proper photos taken that show it in it's full glory rather than just half finished with my shower in the background! Please also take into account that it also needs a good iron, particularly around the midriff! Oh and excuse the blurry photos!

Let me add that it's highly flattering in the bust area, all that pleating and gathering gives me the illusion of actually having something there, which is a bonus!

Finally, have just found out that this pattern (Mccalls M6011) is now out of print :-( which is a shame because it's lovely!

Striving for perfection

My dress now has a skirt, in *drumroll* heart print! Ok it's not attached yet but it's ready to be! My lovely commenters, Carly and Hayley both suggested the heart print, as did Fran who made a good point about body shape and how if I'm a pear shape the red skirt would draw attention to my lower half, whereas the red waistband breaking up the heart print will draw the attention to my waist instead. I am a definite member of the pear brigade and my bum definitely doesn't need any extra attention! I have a tendency to completely forget about the effect colour and patterns can have within a garment, drawing attention to different areas and tend to focus more on the shape of the garment, but colour is definitely something I need to keep in mind! I think in my heart of hearts I knew that the red skirt wouldn't be quite right or I wouldn't have even questioned it. Which meant more of my <sarcasm>favourite part of dress making, cutting out more fabric, hooray!</sarcasm> But it'll be worth it.

As I move closer to the end of the pattern I've realised a few mistakes I've made along the way. I've sewn the midriff lining on the wrong way up, though I'm blaming the unclear pattern instructions for that one, so have unpicked that ready to be re-sewn. There are a few other bits which aren't quite right so I'm going to make a few amendments. I really want this dress to look the best that I can manage and if that requires lots of unpicking and being fussy over tiny little things, then that's what I'll do! Luckily for me the dress has come together quicker than I expected and so I have time to go back and re-do these little things rather than being in a mad rush to wear it. Tomorrow is the 4th so I still have 10 days to get it ready before valentines day. Even if I don't end up wearing it then, I'll find an excuse to wear it that week!!

The skirt is lovely and full so I'm looking forward to getting it attached :-)

Planning my valentines dress

I don't normally post about planning my dresses because (I'll be honest) there's not usually that much planning that goes into them. But as I have a painstaking wait for my fabric to arrive and I didn't know what style of dress I wanted to make, I've been having a think over the weekend while I've been at home and have come up with the following...

I mentioned that I wanted the bodice to be heart print and the skirt to be red but that was as far as I'd got. Having had a think about the patterns I have in my stash and how I want this dress to be pretty and girly, I've decided to use McCalls M6011 and this sleeveless style:

Which I believe fits my requirements!

Back to the drawing board

I've been trying to think about what I'm going to do next and I seem to have come up with yet another dress, but I'm hoping to have enough fabric left over to be able to make something else too! I bought BurdaStyle magazine yesterday for the first time and it had lots of interesting patterns in it and there are a few tops and skirts I'd like to have a go at making but I have no fabric! And I have my heart set on making a valentines inspired dress (not that I'll have anywhere to wear it of course!) so have ordered two metres of this:

Someone was selling 2m of it on Ebay as they'd bought it but weren't using it so I got it for a good price of £5 including postage.

And I also bought two metres of red polycotton with the idea that I'm going to make the bodice of the dress using the heart print and the skirt using the red polycotton and will then have extra to make other exciting garments!

I intend to try a few new techniques out, such as blind stitching the hem and doing some french seams, and also taking my time to make the dress well fitting and good quality, we'll see how that one goes!

Until my fabric arrives my life is empty from a sewing perspective, though I'm visiting home this weekend so will probably pop into the haberdashery in my home town for supplies and wait for my fabric to arrive!