So size does matter after all...

Another important lesson in my sewing journey, just because the pieces are all 'your' size doesn't mean the dress will actually fit when you've finished it! I'm new to this sewing lark, as you all know, and though I've heard briefly of such things as making the garment in muslin first so you can make adjustments before you even start on the real thing, it's not something I've yet partaken in. It takes me long enough to make the real deal let alone a dummy version! But having just got near to the end of the dress that I've been working on and putting it on and discovering it's too big, I can sort of see the point now!

The dress in question is the grey viscose number using a pattern from 'Sew' magazine, I posted previously about this dress and my issues with the collar. Well I've spent the evening sewing my little heart out, I've learnt how to apply bias binding and I got to the point where it was all sewn and all that was left was the zip and the skirt hem. So I decided to try it on, see how it looks. I look in the mirror and am presented with this:

I guess the only words to describe it are long and shapeless! And this is supposedly the short version of the dress, but it still comes well below the knee for me. The armholes are too big, the neckline is too big and it's rather roomy around the back! The irony is that when I measured myself at the beginning my bust came out as a size 12 and my hips a 16 (I'm usually a 10-12 on the high street) but I decided to just make a solid 12 anyway, which I'm rather glad about now or I'd have a whole lot more adjusting to do! The dress is also made out of fabric from another dress and getting the pattern pieces on was a squeeze, so I've spent a lot of time worrying about how the dress would be too small and sewing smaller seam allowances to make up for some of the pattern pieces not quite fitting. Turns out I needn't have worried! I did comment when I saw the pattern pieces that they looked 'bloody enormous' - trust your gut instinct people! So I called in the experts (read: my mum) and suggested that it probably doesn't need a zip since it's too big and it's stretchy viscose t-shirty material and she's helped me pin it so it fits a bit better!

Tomorrow is another day and a day of taking the dress in at the seams and making it a lot shorter! But at least I won't have to mess about with the zip foot! There's a silver lining to every cloud...

I will be back soon with (hopefully) a better looking dress which looks more like what I imagined and less like a grey potato sack! :-)

Quirky or just plan ugly? I suppose only time will tell...

I've been doing a bit more work on the dress from 'Sew' magazine. Unfortunately there have been a few 'errors' along the way and things haven't gone exactly as planned. I can see how the dress is good for beginners but I personally could have done with a few diagrams to help explain things a bit better; like where exactly the collar is meant to start and finish! I thought the collar was the same shape all the way round and so it didn't matter which side I sewed on, this turned out to be a mistake and I now have white stitching on my black collar. Having gained an opinion from the mother I think I'm just going to try and pass it off as a 'design feature'. Ahem. I also seem to have quite a big gap between where the two collar pieces are at the front, on the diagram picture there was a big gap but on the photo of the model wearing the dress there wasn't. But if I followed the natural neckline of the dress and the markings I was left with a bit of a gap at the front, so I've just gone with it anyway! The original pattern wants me to put a button in that gap, I wasn't going to do that but if it looks a bit weird I might just stick a massive button in there anyway!

I'm really not sure how this one is going to turn out, whether it's going to look cute, quirky and different or whether it's just going to look horrendously ugly and remain unworn and forgotten about in my wardrobe... Anyway, here's a pic of the bodice thus far. I still need to put bias binding on so ignore the rough edges around the top of the collar and neckline!

In reality it's a darker grey than that but I stuck the flash on to give you a proper idea of the stitching and what's going on thus far! Looking at this pic it doesn't look like the darts and the collar line up... I'm sure they do in reality?! Oh dear, I guess with this one I'll just have to keep going and see what happens!

Everywhere I go I'm haunted by curtains

Really, does nowhere round here sell fabrics for making dresses? I know I can buy online but since I'm new to this I want to get a feel for different compositions and what the fabric feels like but everywhere I go I'm faced with racks and racks of furnishing fabrics and none for clothes :( I've been to fabric warehouse, John Lewis (this specific branch only sell home stuff apparently), hobbycraft and a few independent stores and they've all been rubbish to be frank.

It's almost done!

Have done a lot of work on the dress today, messed up the pockets a bit (I couldn't get my head round how they went on and then managed to cock it up) but have fixed them I think... and then been attaching the skirt to the bodice. I did everything today on my own with no help, the pleats and everything! So now it actually looks like a dress and all I have to do now is attach the zip and hem the bottom of the skirt and I'm done! Hooray!

I've taken some photos now that I can actually wear it, obviously it's not fitted that well because the back is gaping open but I've tried to hold it together for the photo...