When I finished the toile I was unsure of what fabric to use. The lovely vintage type blue fabric I got on a car boot sale, which I shared here, or a leopard print fabric I bought from Abakhan. My first wish was to go with the blue fabric but I love it so much I prefer to keep it for when I improve my skills. The leopard print fabric made me also weary as it is a poly chiffon so very, very slippery and a nightmare. And indeed a nightmare it proved to be, as I chose that fabric exactly.
Marking and Cutting: was a challenge as I do not have a suitable surface and the fabric is way too slippery. My back also hurt after cutting and marking all.
Constructing the bodice: Because of the already mentioned slippery caracteristic of the fabric, doing the darts was a bit hit and miss to be honest, and I had to use my seam ripper to get it to an acceptable level. The rest of the bodice, which included panels and uses interfacing was quite easy. I changed the shoulder seams as the pattern instructed on a hand sewing technique I couldn't understand.
Constructing the skirt: The skirt was gathered almost all way round and this was not as difficult as I had foreseen. Quite a lot of fabric to gather but, in this instance, the fact that it is slippery and lightweight helped. Attaching to bodice was straightforward too. When it came to doing the hem, oh boy!! That was a nightmare and it's probably the worst hem around.
Finishing: Zip was ok to insert. It's a lapped one and it's a bit wonky but workable. I know I need improving on these. The pattern had a belt to be done and my first thought was to make it out of leatherette. However, I have way too many belts so decided not to do it and use an existing one. I decided to do a fabric flower with a covered button in the middle. Not sure it resembles a flower but I quite like it.
It is not a perfect made dress but I'm very happy with it. I love it and found the perfect excuse to buy some black wedges to wear it with. I think they'll look better than the ones I used for the shoot.
So I finally present you the visual evidence, the photos of the dress.I used a petticoat underneath which unfortunately is a bit shorter, hence the odd effect. Do let me know what you think, I would love to hear your comments.
Photos by Sanyflame Photography (that's me too)
just found you via CL at Thriftystitcher....I think your blog is my new favourite...I saw your dress in SewHip this month - stunning...this leopard print dress has wowed me too...feel all inadequate now - I get no further than talking about making!!!
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