Hello, how are we in April already!
March has been and gone, what have I been up to ? Well apart from my awful dissertation which has been hanging around for what seems like forever I have been busy sewing.
In a previous life I was a professional seamstress, ( have I mentioned that already ? ) I used to have my own Bridal Studio and made bespoke wedding gowns, bridesmaid gowns, evening dresses that kind of thing. I have always loved sewing but unfortunately the financial pressure of the shop took my love of sewing away. It became stressful and pressurised and after I shut up shop I sold so much of my lovely fabrics and my sewing paraphernalia. I never wanted to see my sewing machine again ! Strangely thought although I sold my overlocker, I hung on to my two sewing machines. And I am so glad I did ! 😊
My love for sewing is renewed ❤️
I have made myself a dress
This is the Debra Dress from Fibre Mood magazine.
I made this dress from 4oz denim fabric from Empress Mills. I ordered 2.5 metres and had plenty. This dress does have pockets but after cutting them out I decided not to put them in because by the time I had interlocked them they were not very deep, and I feel if you are going to have pockets then they need to be deep, so my version does not have pockets.
This dress comes in two different back versions, you can have the v neck with the tie like mine or just a plain round back neck.
I measured up for the size 16, but after trying it on realised it was way too big so I had to fiddle with it and grade it down to a 14 but to be fair I didn’t take much off the top so I would say that the top is still a 16.
I would definitely make this dress again I love it. And lets face it, the amount of time it takes to trace the pattern from the magazine it would seem a shame not to use it again.
I also removed all the interfacing from the neckline after finishing it because I have discovered fancy bias tape !! Who knew 😁
This is the difference between making boned corsets and beading and everything that goes with designing wedding gowns, wearable fashion is completely different and I clearly have a lot to learn.
And yes if you look closely it isn’t sewn right to the edge, but the fabric is not forgiving if you make mistakes so I did not want to unpick once I had started and to keep the neatness I needed to just go with it. And do you love the little cute label ? Again there wasn’t anything like this for wedding gowns but we are talking 20 years ago since I was in the business of bespoke gowns.
And of course smudge had to get in on the action
Actually I have just remembered I did make the Babette trousers by Fibre Mood so this is my second dressmaking attempt in the last three years. They were really lovely too but not sure if they still fit me as I have gained weight 😅 We will see, they are more summery trousers so I will have to dig them out and see if I can squeeze myself in to them. Here is a picture of them though in all their glory.
Actually its my third dressmaking attempt because I forgot again, I drafted a top from the left over material for these trousers. My memory is appalling 😝
So thats all folks, until next time. I confess my fabric haul has been extensive in March. Oops 😅 I seem to have switched from buying yarn to fabric. Well my excuse is I need to because I have no dressmaking fabric 🤭
Thanks for checking in xxxxxx
Annette xxxx
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