First lined, boned dress with a zipper I've ever attempted to make from scratch.
Yeah, right.
Neck straps and boobage part semi-complete.
Gathers put in under boobage, waistband and back attached.
Skirt is put together. Also, I do in fact sleep with Han Solo.
Putting in elastic in the back to hopefully make it fit better as the waistband on this thing is HUGE.
Back of bodice with elastic attached. The advantage of loud prints--no one notices your crappy crooked seams.
Slip is made and pinned for hemming.
Pain-in-the-ass gathers in place, skirt ready to be basted to slip, then attached to bodice.
Almost done. Need to put in zipper and make minor alterations here and there.
Look, Ma! Fully lined!
This is most certainly not how you should pin in a zipper.
The finished product. Elastic and boning was a total waste of time, as I had to take in the back FOUR inches.
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loveinmexico
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and yet another talent!
Best Wishes,
Blittie
;o) {{R}}
Nelly--Mom taught me how to run the machine when I was four or five or so--we were still living at the old house and it was when Cabbage Patch Kids were the craze. She didn't have much patience though. In 7th grade Home Ec we had to make "locker caddies", but all they used were straight seams, which I already knew how to do thanks to Mom. Most of the rest is self-taught, out of books, and trial-and-error. It's not hard--just takes lots of practice.
It took about a day and a half to make this dress. Fabric pattern was picked for its loudness--I figured that would distract from my inevitable screwups.
Brian--you should have seen this thing before I made the alterations. I was swimming in it.
Blittie--this one only called for 3 yards of outer fabric and two yards for lining, so it was pretty easy to do with clearance stuff.
Joan and Cartouche--thanks!!
Rod--will do!
Deborah--If I make this one again, I think I'm doing the 12 waist and 18 bodice and skirt, and making the back a bit higher so that I don't have to pin my dress to my bra to keep things covered. Learn as you go.
Owl--I did 7 or 8 years in 4-H. The only sewing I did for that though was in my first year, something called "Sewing Children's Toys." Never did clothing. I really, really, really disliked the idea of having to walk a catwalk at the 4-H fashion show at the fair every year, which was one of the requirements for the clothing divisions.
I made a snake out of an old green 1970s fabulous tie and got a Grand Champion on it. It was pretty cool--I put jingle bells in the stuffing in the tail so that it was a rattlesnake that really rattled.
The zipper is (badly) sewn in by hand, as I couldn't find the zipperfoot and it's a pain in the ass anyway. Unless you're looking for the crappy stitching, though, you can't see it. I picked that fabric pattern on purpose.
As the son of someone who put me through college on the exorbitant mark-ups charged by women's retail clothing shops I should be constitutionally opposed to home sewing, but you did a great job.
hey! you're gorgeous!