Prom Dress Update

Prom dress, refashionned

Tasia of Sewaholic, whom you should read because she makes very pretty clothes, just showed her prom dress and it reminded me that I promised a picture of mine way back in May. My sister was nice enough to scan some pictures of her wearing it in the short cut version. My Mom bought the dress for me on a trip to Hawaï. It was japanese influenced had a long slit on the side and had little surfers and palms trees in black and gold print. 

I can't beleive how elaborate Tasia's dress is. I couldn't have tackled that at 16. No wonder her sewing chops are so sharp! I did make a black satin jacket with red satin piping to go with it (Butterick 6571 view C) and that was difficult enough for me. 

Any of you living in 1979 will know this outfit was quite radical, punk even, the aesthetics of it, no ruffle, no frills, no petticoat, no pastel, no chiffon, was just reaching our far away St-Lawrence River shores. 

Just so you know, that year, being the rebellious silly youngsters we were, we boycotted the yearbook, the official photographs and we gave a piglet to the valedictorian. Carole, Lucie, Louise and I showed up unaccompanied as a small feminist stance. There are no records of that evening.

The satin jacket has long been lost but the dress is about to be passed away to my nieces if they want it. Isn't it neat that 30 years later, my prom dress will get a third life?

Leftover Fabric

"You must have some leftover fabric, why don't you sew me a (insert a garment here)".

As I am starting to hear this more and more, I thought I'd address this issue once and for all. I mostly sew for me and my very close family. In other words, if Junior here marries your daughter in 20 years, I might consider making you something eventually.

Also you should stop refering to my leftover fabric as scraps. I don't keep scraps. The pieces left after a project are big enough to line a pocket or a collar, make some bias, a small pouch for Pokemon cards, a muslin and so on. I might not have use for them now, but I will, one day. They are valuable and will not be wasted on you!

Bring your sewing machine, I'll show you how to use it, I'll show you how to follow a pattern, hem your pants, fix your rip but I won't do it for you. Go seek a professionnal if you need one.

There I have said it. The Selfish Seamstress is on to something and I should listen to her.

Quickie : Shirring

Up until last week, I didn't know I could shirr with my machine. I don't know I'll be using this technique a lot, but I am quite happy to have learned a new trick... which I quickly passed on to the lovely young lady who comes everyday to learn. 

I may have created a monster because all day, yesterday, she painstakinly, very slowly made rows and rows of shirring to make a dress like this one, which is really a 2 hour project if you are not a beginner.

There is no pattern to this dress, it's a square. Measure your bust, double the measure, in my case I took the entire 150cm width (where I realised the cheap fabric I bought had been printed on a slant) made a baby hem on top and used this excellent very simple shirring video. I made a side seam, a 4cm hem and I was ready to hit the beach in style. Just so you know, I took off 25cm in length after seeing this picture!

Just imagine this knee-lenght

She was shinning with glee when she finished, I found it extremely moving as I made a Ratatouille-like flashback to being 16 and felt her joy and pride. She has some of the qualities it takes to make a seamstress : extreme patience, some stubbornness, some pickiness and a steady hand. I wish her a gazillion little perfect stitches and hundreds of well-worn handmade garments.

Belted : Vogue 9133

What a difference a belt makes!

Remember this one? I finally got around to take the scraps and make a belt for it. I knew it would make a difference but I didn't expect the dress would become more comfortable to wear!

I am such a procrastinator, it took me a year to make what I made in a half hour before lunch on the counter top! Now I like it so much, I am going to make little belt loops!

In other news, I've been making slow progress on the Burda 7517 dress. I am showing the lovely young ladies next door how to follow a pattern but, I can't really say I am teaching them how to sew as it would be a misnomer, there is very little sewing being done here, lots of unpicking and recutting very shifty material and starching and said dress NOT looking like the envelope and general headaches caused by working with a pattern with no dots and marks. I don't know that they'll learn anything from this experience except patience. I should have made a cotton skirt!

Is there a tutorial for marking a Burda pattern properly? I could use one if I am to use their patterns again. You girls and boys get such lovely results out of them and all I have so far is a raging headache!