Monday, February 17, 2014

A $5 dress

Don't you love these projects that come in at crazy cheap prices?

I bought this fabric at the weirdest store in my parents' town.  They have the most random stuff.  Gift bows, dishes, tinsel, tools.  I don't even know what to call it.  But my grandma told me I should go there for fabric.

I didn't have a ton of luck.  They did have a lot of old fabric, but I felt like for the most part their prices weren't great.  Once I went to get the two things I did find cut, I figured out that the prices are merely a suggestion.  Also they're terrible at measuring.  I told her I wanted 5 yards of this but I would take whatever they had.  She said they had under 3 yards and charged me like $1.50/yd for it.  Grand total $4.50 plus tax.  But after making this dress I still have over 1 1/2 yards.  I think it probably was closer to 5 when I started!

Anyway, as soon as I saw this dress I knew what I wanted to do with it.  Well, I knew I wanted to do one of two things.  Either a vertical striped bodice with a horizontal circle skirt, or a bodice cut on the bias.  I decided to try the bias since this fabric was so cheap, and if I couldn't figure it out, so be it.

Well, it took me quite a bit of time, mostly because these stripes are not totally consistent and don't match exactly.  But after an hour or so I had the bodice pieces cut.  The funny thing is, I was looking and looking for a pattern that would work, and I thought I would have to really alter one I already had.  Then I noticed my halloween costume balled up in the floor of my closet and realized this pattern was PERFECT.  It was made to be cut on the bias, and I love it.  This made the cutting a lot easier for me, although there was still a bit of work to do to match up the stripes.

So here it is!  I was happy when I looked at the weather and realized it would be perfect for today.  I didn't line this as I wanted a cool, breathable summer dress.


I am having some unfortunate issues with dart bubbles, which is usually not a problem for me.  I'm going to try to fix it tonight.



Check out those perfectly lined up stripes though!

The back is also a vee, which is really cute.  I love how this pattern sort of slopes off of the shoulders.  It's perfect for this fabric.

I only used the pattern for the bodice, and just did a dirndl skirt.  The pattern also calls for a dirndl.  But it's LONG and FULL which I wasn't looking for.  This silhouette is much nicer for me.

I'm trying to decide what to do with the rest of this fabric.  It's pretty distinctive so I'm not sure I want another real piece of clothing.  It's SO soft though.  Maybe pajamas?  Or I might say fuck it and just do a shirt.  Everyone knows I sew a lot of my clothes anyway, so it wouldn't be a shocker.

I'm a big fan of this dress.  Weirdly, none of the stripes are colors that I particularly love (or love on me) but I'm really drawn to it as a whole.  Brett said it looks like a grandma's couch.  "Not your grandma, but A grandma." I like how he clarified because he knows my grandma is too cool to have a couch like this.  I'm not sure he's converted yet.  But he'll have to get used to it, because I can see myself wearing this a LOT this summer.

Project:  Bias stripe dress
Pattern:  Vintage Vogue V8789
Fabric:   Some old soft cotton?
Notions:    thread.  It calls for a 12" zipper at the side.  I eliminated this because there's enough ease to pull it over my head
Skills involved:  Cutting on the bias, matching patterns, gathering, putting in a zipper if you're not shaped like a triangle!
Changes made:  Eliminated zipper, self drafted (too strong a word. I cut out some rectangles) the skirt to eliminate some fullness.  I was originally planning to put the zipper in the back, so I split the skirt in the back and sewed it all together with the back open, which I think made the gathering of the skirt quite a bit easier!
Fuckups:  I originally sewed the skirt on inside out.  That was fun to unpick!  Other than that, no mistakes!