The "last minute, gotta have it now, make me look pretty Mommy" dress

So, like I said before, my sweet daughter needed an all white dress for he end of year concert for choir. The concert was on Thursday night. I started cutting on Monday and sewing on Wednesday night. Thankfully it was a fairly easy pattern. Gotta love those.

 

 

 

 

 

The title on it says easy, and I will say, for the most part, it was. My biggest challenge came in the form of the fabric. See, my princess wanted it to be full white eyelet. No problem. I like eyelet. It's pretty, very dainty, and girly in my opinion. Perfect for my girl . We found a very nice one on the Joanns website and sent my Mom to pick it up since she could get an additional discount on the fabric. (side note: PSA Joanns has senior discounts on Wednesday. It is applied on top of any other sales or coupons. Check with your local store for details.) Well, wonderful idea, except that since I was not there to check the fabric, it was discovered after washing and getting ready to cut, that the eyelet design does not extend to the salvage edge. So, let this be a lesson to all of you. Double check not only the width of your fabric, but the extension of the design on said fabric.

 

Thankfully, this problem was remedied easily enough by just buying more fabric. But I had not planned on that. So, I ended up buying fabric to cut out the skirt so I could start sewing. Here is the very pretty paisley eyelet from Joanns.

 

 

 

 

Like I said, very pretty fabric. Perfect for her dress. The thing to remember with an all over eyelet print, is you will need a lining fabric for it as well. This was also a small issue because my Mom thought the more opaque the better. Which means the lining fabric was a little heavier than I had planned. I asked for symphony broadcloth, but ended up with something closer to a twill. Lesson learned, discount is good. Better if you go with your "senior" to make sure you get what you need for the discount. We made it work though. And for sure, no one will see ANYTHING through that dress, and chances of a gust of wind causing an embarrassing moment are pretty close to nil. But, my daughter loved the dress. It took me about 6 hours from start to finish and I am very happy with the results. Everyone thought she looked beautiful. She felt like a princess. And everyone was happy. So, here is the picture of the "last minute, gotta have it, make me look pretty Mommy" dress on my princess. She truly felt like a soprano virtuoso ready for her spotlight performance. Mission accomplished.

 









On to the next adventure...

So, not even 24 hours after posting about my last creation/obsession, I am starting on my next creation. My daughter is singing in a choir performance on Thursday (yes 2 days away) and decided she needs a new dress for it. Since they are singing a song from "Phantom of the Opera" she decided she needed a floor length white dress. Eyelet fabric was purchased, lining fabric was purchased and we have the eyelet cut out. Hopefully the rest will go smoothly. Wish me luck.

 



My dreams are coming to fruition

There is a fabric I saw on another blog about a year ago. I have thought about it ever since. Dreamed about what I could do with it. And everytime I saw it at the store would imagine what I would do with it. What is this amazing fabric that had me so captivated for a year, you ask. Well here it is

                                               It's Multibrush Strokes Charmeuse - from Joann's

                                                    

So, I actively started looking for something to make with this. I just had to do something with this fabric. See it running through my sewing machine. I finally decided on a dress pattern I found on McCalls.com.  Here it is.

                              

Last week, I went to Joanns and bought the fabric and pattern and proceeded to bring my dream to life. I washed the charmeuse and lining in cold water on a gentle cycle to make sure it was ready to be used. This step is one I never skip. I makes sure the fabric is preshruck so you don;t get puckering after you have made the garment and wash it. Different fabrics will shrink or not shrink in their own way.

After washing my material, I folded it and hung it on a hanger to wait while I read through my pattern to make sure I knew where to start. I also needed to find time to be able to ignore, er I mean, occupy my family so I could have my sewing therapy time. This usually happens on Wednesday nights when my kids go to Mutual at church and my husband catches up on his NCIS episodes.

Finally Wednesday night came and I cut my pattern pieces out and laid out my fabric. I did make a small alteration to the design I was going to use. I wanted the neckline of View B with the sleeve length of Vuew C, so I cut the sleeves accordingly. This is the fabric laid out on my table as I placed my pattern pieces.


                                         

 

 

That night I was abe to get all the main pattern pieces cut out, but not the lining. The lining I cut out a few days later. So today, I had some extra time this afternoon and went to work on my dress again. Here are pictures of the outer portions of the dress assembled.

 

 

 

This is coming right along. I just love the flow of the fabric and the way the colors just jump out at you. It is such a fun, bright, and happy fabric. I can't wait to wear it. But, first thing is first. I need to finish the dress. So I spent every moment I had sewing and pinning and getting it all put together the way I wanted. I had some trouble with the zipper, as I decided to do an invisible zipper...then after having to rip it out a few times, decided a regular zipper would do just fine. (Hey, sometimes you just have to admit when you're beat.)

 

        I hemmed the lining about 1 1/2 shorter than the dress itself. I finished the hand work on the sleeve openings, and then I was done.

 

 

 

I just love the way this dress came out. It is so fun and colorful. My daughter said I looked like a bird. (Who cares what a 14 year old girl thinks) I told her I was a rare tropical Macaw. LOL Then I decided I felt more like a butterfly. Either way, I am so very happy with the dress and can not wait to wear it again.