Mint Chocolate Chip - March's Dress

Done by the 24th this time! Wow, it's like I'm getting good at this or something. So here is March's dress in all its glory. For some reason I have really been attracted to green, perhaps it's all this warm weather. This is the third dress in the book and I really enjoyed making it. I think it turned out the best of all the dresses so far.

This dress is called "drindle" which (as I read in the book) means gathered skirt. I was excited about doing this dress because I tried to make a gathered skirt once and it utterly failed.

First, I cut out all the pieces. Unlike the others, there were a few more pieces. The top part of the dress had 3 pieces and the bottom did as well.



Then I had to make the top part of the dress first. This was fairly simple and made me feel more accomplished because I could see one whole half of the dress finished.



Then I made a gathered skirt. I followed the instructions exactly and it turned out really well. I am glad I can add this to my skill set from now on, it is really handy. In the picture you can see the skirt gathered really close together but that isn't how I sewed it on the top of the dress. I had to stretch it back out a bit but it wasn't a problem.



Finally I put the top and bottom together and added a zipper. As you can see, it turned out really well. I am very pleased with it. It's a bit dressy looking with the gathered skirt but Easter is coming up! Also, I might add a red ribbon to it later.



And per my cousin's request, I am smiling! :)

Just can't get enough

Greg and I ran a bunch of errands yesterday and we just happened to stop by the fabric store. I managed to get new material for March's dress and also some linen. It was so warm outside, I could help but want warm weather fabric. I've been making all my summer clothes now and I can't wait to wear them more often than just the random warm days we've been having.

Feeling an itch to sew, I started working on my linen dress. I used the same pattern as February's dress but just added pockets on the seams. I was worried that the linen would be see-through and I wouldn't be able to wear it anywhere other than the beach. I have some muslin laying around, so I decided to make a liner.



In my infinite wisdom, I just sewed the linen and muslin together, kinda like when you make a pillow. I thought it would keep me from having to finish the ends and make the inside look cleaner. It kinda did those things but it was a pain. First, you've got to make the pattern larger because you are using the seam allowance to sew the muslin and the linen together, rather than to the rest of the dress. It was quite challenging to make sure the linen and muslin were completely lined up as well.

The pockets turned out well. It was simple enough to do and I'm glad I jumped that hurdle because it will be easier and easier to do them in the future.



As I lamented in the last post, finishing the ends of things would be nicer with a serger. So until I get one, I bought pinking sheers. They keep the ends of fabric from unraveling. They are awesome.



This dress turned out alright. I've still got to add sleeves. There were still lots of mistakes. It will make a good summer-afternoon-out dress.



I'll post a picture of me in the dress when the sleeves are done.

February's Dress: Finished

When I was younger, there wasn't any way to wrangle me into wearing pink. I preferred green because I was fascinated by turtles. I also wore blue to match my eyes. I loved orange, too. However, pink was a little too girly for me. Now, I can't get enough of it. It reminds me of spring and gives me a warm fuzzy feeling when I wear it. As Greg said, "that's a lot of pink" but I really love the way the dress turned out.



This dress turned out far better than January's dress. It only took me about 3 days to make it, a couple of hours of effort each day. I spent most of the month experimenting and unfortunately failing. My first design idea was a little too ambitious. I had envisioned making the neckline and sleeves of the dress out of sheer fabric, and the rest out of the pink jersey material. As I cut everything out and sewed it together, it was clear that the sheer fabric could not hold up the rest of the dress; it would tear if used as support, so I took it apart and tried other things. In the end, I got out the second pattern from my book, and used that.



After all, I only used the jersey material to make the dress. The sheer fabric made a great circle scarf.



What I liked:
The jersey material is great. It isn't as light as t-shirt material, so it has a weighty feel. The pattern was loose fitting, which made the dress more comfortable than the January dress. Also, I love the sleeves. This might become my "uniform dress," the one I make over and over in different colored fabric.

What I didn't like:
Unfortunately, I don't have a serger. The serger allows the jersey material to stretch without having the stitches pop out. Since I couldn't sew it like that, I used a zig-zag stitch to let the material expand where I needed it to move, in other words to keep me from "hulking out" of the dress. The dress was loose enough that I only had to do that stitch on the back. I would like to use this fabric again but I'm going to wait until I have a serger.

What I learned:
I learned that sheer fabric is tricky and I should practice more before using it. I also learned that thick jersey material is really comfortable.