Creativity | Sewing

Using my stash and saving some moola

September 30, 2008

After getting a bit of a shock as to how high our credit card has become, I decided to not buy a new dress for the wedding a few weekends ago.  Since all of my other dresses didn’t fit me.  Which sucks.

I delved and dived into my fabric stash of sunken costs and decided to make one on the Tuesday night before the wedding.  I had bought a pretty fabric at the warehouse that was a bit stretchy and had a great texture and sheen to it.  It looked quite elegant on the bolt.  I had to line it though, since the fabric pattern has some holes in it, and I found a lightweight brown georgette fabric for that.  Next was what to use for the accent fabric.  I finally decided to cut into this green brocade beauty that I purchased sometime last year.  I had only purchased 1 yard so I have no idea what I intended to do with it for that small of a cut. It took a few nights of working on it to produce this beauty.

 

The dress looks okay on me – but it looks better on the hanger.  Much better.  I didn’t wear it since it wasn’t exactly pleasing to my figure.  Instead I sucked in my gut and barely got one of my other dresses zipped up, but after almost straining some muscles in the process…it was on me.  I couldn’t breathe too deeply the rest of the night, but at least I had a dress to wear! 😉

That’s the luck you get when trying to make your own clothes – you get winners and losers.  I deviated from the pattern and it was a bit hard to sew.  My serger did not like it one bit and wouldn’t cut it when I was sewing the 4 layers at once.  I have decided that I don’t like sewing with lining – especially a georgette fabric that is slippery.  I think because the fabric is a bit too bulky it just didn’t work for this pattern.  It needs a more flow-y type of fabric that lays flatter.  Dang.  I’m going to try to modify it a bit at somepoint so it doesn’t get thrown in a giveaway pile.  I’ll take out the gathers under the waistband and then reduce the lining.  Then it should look better at least.  A project for a lazy winter weekend…

  1. I was going to suggest possibly selling it too – seriously, it is stunning! (I’m sure it looked great on you, too. We are our worst critic!)

  2. I love the accent material on the dress. The whole wrap around thing is beautiful. It looks very asian to me. Bummer that you had to squeeze into one of your old dresses. I know what it is like to feel uncomfortable all night! Even squeezing into a pair of jeans you just cant let go is horrible. Nice work on this dress.

  3. Oh how pretty!
    I love your eye for combining patterns and colors.
    And it’s not a mistake if you learned you liked something a little different.
    I’m sure someone would snap that up on etsy… but I’m glad you’ll work on it more. Keep us posted!

  4. Love the dress, it does look elegant on the hanger. You should have taken a picture with it on too. I am right there with you on my dresses fitting. 4 months after having Nicolo we had a weeding to go to..arghhh.. I have a variety of clothing sizes, but not the size I am now. Either to big or to small, go figure!

  5. The fabrics look great together.
    I love the combination of texture and silky.
    I’ve never had luck sewing for myself. I’d like to, but it just seems to be like what you say here – looks better on the hanger. Although I bet you are too hard on yourself and it probably looks really nice on!

  6. I totally think you should modify it! The fabric and the look of the dress are unique and very breathtaking. I’ll cross my fingers you can figure something out. 🙂

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