handmade with love

although i could whip up the most awesome purse in a matter of minutes, i've half finished many-a-clothing-projects, and i'm happy to report that i successfully made a test dress. becoming disillusioned with finding the perfect cocktail style BM dresses on macys.com, and fueled with a bit of frustration and rage, i went out and bought patterns. i abhor patterns like i abhor sewing pins.

measure twice, cut once is a mantra my dad taught me. it applies to everything from sewing, to metal work, to wood work, to restoring cars. he's an upholstery mechanic by trade, but i do about 99% more sewing than he does. he's probably part of the reason why his only daughter can happily sew through anything 3/8 of an inch thick but when it comes to lighter fabrics i'm done for. i was tempted to get some great, heavy, upholstery fabrics that i imagine the dress at left would be made of, in my sewing world, but i made sure to steer clear of delicate fabrics and bought some cute cotton to work with.


so i basically did this as a test run. 5 hours later i learned the value of
a) the measure twice cut once rule....however, even though i saved myself from cutting the pieces along the wrong run of the grain, this rule didn't manage to save me from picking the wrong pattern! i didn't want the halter top option! oops! so here's what it would look like without straps that tie up around your neck.

b) pinning. i managed to pull off a dress, made to fit me without the use of any pins, because i abhor using pins in my sewing, but i do admit they would have come in handy. three random needles sufficed.

c) even though i chose the smallest possible pattern size, which allowed for a 24" waist, it did nothing to decrease the cup size from a double d. i had been tempted just to sew all my pieces together in one go, but that would have been disastrous...see second half of d)

d) press open the seams with an iron. no really. it's important. and if i try on the outfit and realize i made the skirt portion too big for my waist, don't just sew it smaller! unpick the bodice, sew it, then press open the new seams.

although i usually like my images to match the width of my text blocks, i couldn't stomach the thought of showcasing myself 410 pixels wide several times over. damn, i think i'd better start practicing my look-casual-and-candid-but-still-look-pretty poses....i've got a wedding coming up! so without further ado, me with a fire-poker and other pictures that show off my love for cute shoes: