Sewing project progress: Jared's checked apron, part IV, and my first sad attempt at a dress

Earlier this week I bought a sewing box in which to store all the bits and bobs my mom passed on to me along with the sewing machine. It was nice to clear all those notions off the table and into clearly organized compartments. And of course, immediately after clearing up my workspace I messed it all up again by diving back into projects.

I decided to try my hand this past weekend at making my very first dress. Perhaps a little overambitious given my current level of experience (two unfinished aprons, one hemmed shower curtain, one hand-sewn skirt) but I had a fairly easy sheath dress pattern and I figured why not take a stap at it. I bought a couple of long skirts at the thrift store made of very pretty fabric that were too long and unweildy for me to want to wear, with the intention of tearing open the seams and reusing the fabric for my own purposes. One was a silky red with gold Asian-style embroidery in it, the other very dark plum with a subtle black floral print.

I started off well enough. I decided to use the red material first, so I ripped out the seams and laid out the fabric. The skirt was more than long enough to make myself a knee-length dress out of it. So I folded it in half and carefully laid out the dress's front pattern piece on it so that the fold matched up with the appropriate center line on the pattern. I pinned it into place, though I was a bit distressed to see how much damage that did to the pattern. Then I cut it. It was hard even with my rotary cutter, but I was slow and careful, and when I unfolded it I had a really precise replica of the pattern piece that unfolded into a perfect symetrical dress front. Immensely please with myself, I went to the mirror and held it up to myself...

...only to see that the damn thing stopped only a litlte bit below my hips. Way too short for a dress. Bewildered, I ran back to look at my pattern piece, and upon examination realized I had cut the hem at the wrong line, way, way shorter than it was actually supposed to be. And not only had I ruined the fabric for this purpose, I'd cut up the pattern piece wrong now as well.

I kind of lost my temper at that. This is a real problem I've been having lately in a lot of situations, and this time was no different. I was very annoyed with myself for messing up this pretty fabric with such a stupid mistake (which is not unusable for anything, but there's not enough of it to make the dress I'd intended unless I seam together two pieces into the front piece) and frustrated at all the effort I'd wasted. I probably should have backed off until I cooled down a little, but I had a bit of a problem with letting go of the notion of "not for nothing." I wanted to keep working until I actually accomplished something, goddamn it. So, with not nearly the proper amount of patience I should have had for the task, I proceeded to rip the seams of the purple skirt and try again.

I should know by now that when I try to cut corners and not take the proper care, things don't come out very well. And by that point I was too frustrated to do that. So I made all kinds of stupid mistakes. For some reason it didn't occur to me to tape the pattern back together at that point, so when I cut it I just kind of estimated where the full length of the skirt would be. I ended up trying to keep the very nice invisible zipper the skirt had built into it so I didn't have to put on in myself, but that meant I didn't remove all the top seams of the skirt the way I should. When I cut the front piece out, it had to have the opposite side seam running down the middle because there wouldn't have been enough fabric otherwise. The skirt's top waist seams made the seams I used to attach the straps to way too fat and ungainly when I turned them inside out. I tried to fit the thing on myself by having blendedchaitea* pin it together on me in the right places, but it proved too hard to keep those pins where they belonged when I tried to get it off again. So the fitting's all off. And it's asymmetrical all over the place, mostly because I wasn't as carefully with the cutting, and wasn't as precise as I should have been when folding the edges of the cuts under to be sewn. The neckline isn't terrible, but you can clearly see how much lower the one arm hole is than the other. Behold the silly thing in all its wonky, unhemmed glory.

 

So, lesson learned. I cannot do this unless I'm going to put in the time, care, and effort to do things right. Bernie helped me tape the pattern back together to a useable state, so I am going to try this again as soon as I have time. To be honest, I don't know if this dress is unsalvageable. I'll have to rip out a lot of seams, but I think if I'm careful I can make them nicer, if not nice. And I never did put in any of the darts the pattern suggests to help with fitting. I like the fabric enough to go to the effort.

 

In less complicated and more successful sewing news, I decided to put seam binding around the edge of Jared's apron to neaten up the look and cover the wiggly stitching. I also ripped out the belt I put in because when Jared tested it he thought it rode a little too low. I'll have to reattach it with him present so he can point to exactly where he wants it to hit on him.

Wasn't my original plan to have a black border going all the way around like that, but it was something Bernie suggested at the beginning and I actually like the look of now that I've done it. My seams are getting straighter too, and this gave me an opportunity to practice more.