Making the Dress of Your Dreams

 

You know what it’s like when you see some fabric and you just have to have it? You have no clue what you will make with it, but have it you must. Several years ago, I saw some Michael Miller fabric from his Blue & White collection that was an antique porcelain-like pattern and I had to have it. I bought if from an on-line quilting shop and I ordered 5 yards!

Most every serious sewer has a fabric stash. To this, I add my inspiration stash. I have been collecting pictures of outfits or designs I like for years and I stash them away in a folder for future reference. Thankfully it does not take up as much room as the fabric does. I thought I would look through these files of inspiration to see what was there that might match my fabric and voila, there was just the inspiration I needed.

You’ve probably seen this dress before. It’s a Roberto Cavalli and it was famously worn by Victoria Beckham. She and the dress looked fabulous. It is a blue and white oriental pattern with a mermaid-like train. It’s in the book, 100 UNFORGETTABLE DRESSES, “Ming Vase Gown” (Hal Rubenstein, Harper Design, Nov, 2011, p. 17.)

 

There is another dress I am crazy about too because it is so unusual. It wasn’t the dress itself I wanted but the imagination that put it together. This “dress” was made out of blue and white porcelain pieces. It is amazing. (By Li Xiaofeng )

At about this time, I just started signing up for Craftsy classes and one of my first ones was Susan Khalje’s, The Couture Dress.   Watching the class while I worked on my dress, I thought I would create a Roberto Cavalli-like creation.

The class was terrific and I enjoyed Susan Khalje’s teaching. She sewed right along with me and that helped a lot. I go back and re-watch the video occasionally just to review thetechniques. I really worked hard on that dress, starting with the muslin, fitting it, and making the adjustments. I marked the adjustments so I could use the muslin for my pattern on my dream fabric. Following along with Susan, I took my time, and was looking forward to it all coming together in to something smashing!

 

Then it came time to put all the pieces together and there were a lot of them.  The top part fit like a dream, no gaps, no falling straps, and no puckers in the princess seams.  The waist band turned out well too.  There were 7 blocks to piece together and they all fit nicely.  Next, I sewed the skirt pieces together (there were 7 here too) and it too fit well.

 

Then I put all the parts together – the top to the waist band, the waistband to the skirt and whoops. Why did I have a wonky fit in the back? It had worked so well with my muslin and I used that for my pattern. What did I do wrong? The skirt was the right size and it fit well but it did not fit the band at all. The one side would fit to the zipper location but the other side extended past it. It wasn’t too big. The fit was right but the skirt and band were screwy somehow.

 

 

 

Well if I did a little cutting on each side, I could get the top to fit the bottom and get rid of the overlap, but I forgot one major thing: I forgot to look at the front while I was doing this. I had taken special pains to get the 3-piece skirt front to match-up and also work with the top and the band. That took a lot of playing around with the pieces. I sewed the revised skirt to the top and band and put in the zipper. Then I went to try it on before I put in the hem. It all fit beautifully. It hugged my body but I could breathe and walk easily. I loved the fabric and the way I had pieced all the pieces. There was only 1 big problem, though! The curly swirls and the medallions on the skirt that I worked so hard to align were off center. Grrrrrrr. Unfortunately there was no way to fix it except rip off the existing skirt and make a new one. Thankfully I still have about 2 ½ yards of the fabric and several yards of the organza underlining.

 

Despite it’s obvious flaw, (to me), I wore it a couple of times, anyway. I never have gotten around to putting on that new skirt, though. So it has joined the rack of my UFO’s and will someday (who knows when) get fixed.

What big “Whoops” have foiled your efforts to make the dress of your dreams?

Cheers,

 

 

 

 

P.S.  There are a couple of links in this blog to merchandise or instruction.  Should you buy anything from these merchants, I may receive a small commission, but this in no way affects the price of the your purchase.  Commissions paid are used to pay blog expenses such as hosting and security.  Thank you.