I've got so many dress making projects that I could talk about for my first post but I thought I'd choose the dress that I made for summer ball at school.
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I bought the fabric - relatively cheap (£7 a meter-ish) red satin backed something from heathcotts in tiverton - waay back in April I think, after a successful clothes making couple of days with flik. A "prom dress" is somehow something you have to get around to making and I've often said I would but after buying the fabric, I got a little scared and didn't touch it for quite a long time. Then came the holiday in trelowarren. Flik came with my family so that we could "revise together". We basically spent the whole time making clothes or visiting the most amazing fabric shop in truro. The week ended with a pretty chilly fashion shoot with my brother the photographer on the cliffs above Kynance Cove, Cornwall. I will get around to showing it to you properly sometime but for now, just head on over to my rather empty flickr.
The dress is actually quite basic, mainly because I really don't like using patterns so I had to work out the pieces myself. The skir
t is a full circle which basically means the pattern pieces looks like a donut. The bodice is very slightly more complicated with 3 pieces for the front and 2 side pieces (see the diagram). In the end I made it backless with nice cream satin ribbon cross-over straps. This meant that when I put the zip in the back of the skirt, it didn't have to go through lots of seams. Zips are hard enough as it is. I'm just not a perfectionist so I can never be bothered to sort them out. Luckily this one went it ok... Still not brilliant. I added a little gather using a handsewn running stich right at the front just because it looked a bit boring otherwise.
The dress is actually quite basic, mainly because I really don't like using patterns so I had to work out the pieces myself. The skir
t is a full circle which basically means the pattern pieces looks like a donut. The bodice is very slightly more complicated with 3 pieces for the front and 2 side pieces (see the diagram). In the end I made it backless with nice cream satin ribbon cross-over straps. This meant that when I put the zip in the back of the skirt, it didn't have to go through lots of seams. Zips are hard enough as it is. I'm just not a perfectionist so I can never be bothered to sort them out. Luckily this one went it ok... Still not brilliant. I added a little gather using a handsewn running stich right at the front just because it looked a bit boring otherwise.I wore it to the ball with a petticoat made of cream tulle. I just streched a piece of wide elastic whilst I sewed layers of tulle to it so that when it relaxes, it gathers. It's not a perfect petticoat but it works and wasn't too itchy!
I didn't have a camera with me at the ball so I don't have any pictures of me on that night but hopefully some will start appearing on facebook sooner or later.
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RIGHT. So that was my first post. Let me know what you think? Do you like the little pattern diagram? I tried to this what I would find useful on other people's DIY fashion blogs. I'll do some more in-depth tutorials sometime. Again, let me know is there's anything specifically you would like to see.
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