Marnin'! So I said I would share the Valentine's Day dress making process if it were to go smoothly. It has!! Dude, this dress is ridiculous. She looks like a mini Audrey Hepburn in it. Ha! So classy!
So here's how it came together. It still needs sleeves and a hem, but this is the effort so far. First, I have a crazy fit of inspiration and draw out the initial ideas...
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| Yeah, that's a heart cut-out. |
I add details & whatnot's as they come to me... you can kinda see, I write down pretty random stuff so I don' forget!
From there, I work out any kinks that I can foresee, and get to the math-doin'. Fun! I use this large graph paper (purchased at Staples) and start making the pattern pieces.
The bodice was relatively easy to map out... Emmy is pretty much the same circumference from head to toe, so there was no fussing with darts or anything. The bodice is lined, so the only tricky part for me was figuring out the varying seam allowances. The skirt, same deal, I just figured out my finished measurements and went to town, no problems (or so I thought!). The sleeve - yeeps. I've never drafted a sleeve before (besides a little flutter sleeve - that doesn't count :), so I went scouring the interwebs for some direction. Ikat Bag saves the day! I followed the tutorial on her blog (written by Jen from My Measuring Tape), took a few measurements, and made a sleeve block! WOOT! It came out looking so... right! While I was at it, I made markings for a full-length, three-quarter, and short sleeve. AaaaweSOME. So, since I really had no idea how this dress would turn out, I knew I needed to give it a test drive in a fabric I was ok with sacrificing. Here's the test fabric and the fabric originally intended for this dress. I love the test dress so much that I don't even think I'm going to make it in the original fabric.
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| Test run fabric. |
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| Original fabric. |
Besides being madly in love with the navy dress, I've sort of realized that I don't like the literal-ness of the black fabric anymore. At first I thought it would be adorable, but now I think a) the piping would get lost, and b) the fabric is too busy for the design. Thoughts?
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| Business in the front... |
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| Party in the back! :D |
I don't know if you saw on my CrazyNotes to 'not forget botton loops', and I'm happy to report that I didn't!, but my machine EATS little round elastic, so I'm going with hook and eyes instead. So I just have to attach the sleeves and give'r a hem & it'll be done! YAY!
I tried it on Emmy over her clothes and it's so flipping adorable, I can't even tell you. However. The skirt is tiny! It's short and um, snug. Hopefully that's because I put it on her over her jeans... If I do make it again, I will definitely make the pleats deeper so the skirt has more poof & room for the poor girl to walk. She's going to look fierce though. :D
We're going away this weekend, so I won't be able to post pictures of the finished dress until sometime next week. I can't wait to show it off on the little bean! :D
Have a good weekend everyone!
GO PATS!
Amazing! I'm in total awe that you drafted that pattern yourself! Can't wait to see it finished. It will be stunning. And yes, I think the practice fabric looks better than the original. I think the original might be too busy and take away from the awesomeness of the dress.
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