I am a little bit proud. Ok, I'm a lot proud. I have actually sewn myself a garment to wear. Not just patched old wrecked clothes. A full size dress. For me!
This journey started when I stumbled across Tilly and the Buttons - the blog and site of Tilly, who was a contestant in the very first series of The Great British Sewing Bee. I saw a pattern that was just MEEEE all over. The Coco Dress.
So at the Knitting and Stitching Show a couple of weekends ago, my eyes were peeled for jersey fabric. Disappointingly, the range of jersey was poor, I felt. So many gorgeous cotton fabrics with beautiful colours and designs, but such a pitiful range of unappealing jersey fabrics. So I settled for a navy and white stripe, and once home, ordered my paper pattern.
It arrived one day last week, and while Little R snoozed, I ate my pesto pasta and read ALL the instructions so I wouldn't make any silly mistakes. I was very impressed with the pattern and booklet - so informative that even a novice like me could understand each step. And lots of helpful photos and hints.
Lunch eaten, off I skedaddled upstairs to cut out my paper pattern.
When I tried to lie out my fabric, I discovered two small problems. Number One: the close stripes wriggled and jiggled in front of my eyes, giving me visual disturbances. And I had to keep shaking it out to try to get it lying flat with the stripes on the top and bottom matching. Which leads me onto problem Number Two: I should not have been doing this on carpet. The friction made it very tricky to move the jersey at all without it stretching out of shape.
This became more evident when I lay the pattern on top and discovered just how far off straight the fabric had managed to stretch.
A little more wiggling, jiggling and stripe-induced nausea and I had all the pieces laid neatly...
... ready to draw round with my special purple fabric pen.
I found that it was best to stab the patterns with pins so they couldn't move while I drew round them.
Et voila. Four dress pieces all cut out and ready to sew.
(I feel I should mention, at this point, that all these things did not happen during that one nap - the making of this dress has taken the entire week, on and off in moments I've managed to sneak away from Mummying duties.)
When I started stitching on the jersey, I found it went all wobbly and loose...
... s0 I had a wee gander on the internet and decided that I should probably up the tension. It didn't really achieve much, but I ploughed on regardless.
After several days I'd managed to sew the shoulders (Those ribbons are to stabilise the shoulder seam so the fabric doesn't stretch - clever - I know! That Tilly knows her onions!) and was ready to topstitch zig-zag the neckline.
It required two lines of stitching, otherwise the folded under bit kept sneaking out.
And it ended up a little bit fluted...
... which it probably wouldn't have done if I had read and followed this tip. Ooops. Next time!
I felt proud and relieved when my dress resembled the dress in the picture (second down on the left - see?) at the appropriate moment. Phew.
Once I'd got that far, it was time to play get to work with my overlocker. I even tested the tension on a piece of scrap fabric! So profesh.
When it came to pinning the sleeves and the sides, the stripes were invaluable. Lined every bit obsessively carefully.
I got a bit excited about sewing the sides, which led me to poking my finger with the needle. At least there was no blood like the last time I caught my finger under the machine (that time I snapped the needle in half, leaving half wedged in my finger >_<)
Seams sewn, I threw off my clothes and on my dress and legged it to the stairs to see the result. Which was, in fact, a dress! It was a bit baggy though, so I carefully pinned around myself...
... and took it in about an inch around the waist and off each sleeve. I felt like a proper sewer, taking in a garment so it'd fit more snugly.
This morning, while Rachel was on hand to keep Little R out of the pins/scissors/fast-moving bladed machines, I got on with the cuffs.
By the way, how neat is the finish? LOVING my overlocker.
This evening it was FINALLY time to deal with the hem. Hmmm. This was not so good. White on navy. My stitching, in my defence, is usually straighter. But jersey gets caught on the dogfeed (is that what it's called?) and it jerks around.
I had a cunning plan though. Leaving in place the crappy less tidy line of stitching, I did another line in the white stripe (it ended up neater, ironically!).
Then I did a fair bit of unpicking...
Before replacing that dodgy stitching with black stitching, so it wouldn't show up. On the inside, it looks pretty dreadful:
But on the OUTSIDE, it appears pristine! Mwah ha ha!
Are you ready? Now, I'm feeling rather embarrassed about this ta-da, because it involves me. I do NOT like to pose for a camera, but I could hardly lie my dress on the floor and TELL you it fits well, could I? So here it is.
Psst... check out how PERFECTLY all the stripes line up on that seam!
It even floats out when I twizzle.
There. I did it! I made myself a dress! Tee hee hee. Now I need a little warm weather to wear it in!