Battle of the Dress: Making a Dress From Start to Finish, Part One of Two

My sister-in-law is planning her wedding for this Fall. She has super cute taste and a gift for shopping. If I were a stylish piece of clothing trying to hide she could hunt me down so fast. The only trouble with shopping is that sometimes what you want just isn't made yet. Bridesmaids dresses can be tricky to find in exact colors and within a certain price range. 

So I'm making my own--without a pattern. And that's not because I'm awesome, it's because learning how to read a pattern has been more frustrating for me than simply researching individual sewing techniques and trying it out on my own. Plus doing it myself rather than copying another's pattern makes it feel more personal to me.

She sent me a silhouette of the dress pattern she has in mind, so here's my plan...

Step One: The Sketch

I start all my sewing designs with a sketch, usually on a scratch piece of paper or on my trusty iPad 2. Apps like Paper or SketchBookX are excellent choices on the free market. Napkins or junk mail envelopes work too. 

"The sketch" includes three things: 

1) Feature List. In the case of this dress, I want a boat neck, quarter-length sleeves, pockets, gussets under the sleeves, lapped zipper, bust darts, and a knee-length skirt complete with kick pleat and filler. Don't be fooled; I've never sewn a complete dress with any of these features put together. This is a dream list. As I start developing my pattern and time moves on it's highly likely some of these things will be sacrificed.

2) Order of Operations. Trying to outsmart my own system and skipping the triple-O is my greatest cause of unpicking seams in the wee hours of the morning because I just wanted to get that one blasted project done. Second-greatest cause is buttonholes, and there's almost recovering from that one. During planning I make a note of the order of operations as I go. I don't always know all the steps ahead of time but assembling a "this-goes-before-that" list builds my map to the finish line. 

3) The Design (obviously). I sketch a line drawing of the basics, indicating where the features belong, estimated measurements if applicable, colors if they matter, and anything else that will help me get what I want.

Once I have the sketch, I move on to...

Step Two: Practice

I learned a valuable tip at the craft store today: if you're buying fabric for practice, look for stains. I can't believe I never thought of this before! I grabbed a bolt of bleached Muslin for some testing and when the woman at the counter unrolled the fabric from the bolt we discovered a grease stain. I paid $9 for $18-worth of Muslin and floated home on a cloud; that's powerful stuff.

My intention for the fabric is twofold:

1) Wash it. I don't care about the stain, I just want the texture and stretch to match the actual fabric I may or may not use for the final garment. I don't know the material at this point; one can only hope for knit when designing a wiggle dress. "Knit at a wedding?" you say? Time will tell.

2) Make a sample. This is where the gussets and lapped zipper--both features I've never sewn before--will be tested, tweaked and wrestled until I figure out what those crazy online tutorials are really trying to say.

More on "practicing" when I get there. Laundry first.

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When reading this you might be tricked into thinking things like, "She's got it all figured out!" Or, "That dress is going to be amazing!" Of course, lest we forget, this is my first full dress design and I've never tried half the things I want to include, so this will be fun! ("?")

Gussets and facings and zippers and pockets all promise late nights of measuring, unpicking, and stitching. (And maybe another word that rhymes with "stitching"...) 

Needles may be broken. Bad words may fly. At least can all laugh about it when it's all over...

Do you have any tips that make your sewing experience easier? Feel free to share!

5 Things Darth Vader Said About Sewing

Who knew that phrases like, "The Force is strong with this one," and, "So, you have a twin sister..." could relate to sewing? In this article they do! Let a Sith Lord inspire your inner seamstress. Here are five things Darth Vader said and how they could help you find your inner seamstress.

#1: "The emperor does not share your optimistic appraisal of the situation."

Years ago I tried scrapbooking. An almost endless supply of papers, stickers, and various embellishments were actually at my fingertips. I had one-on-one, daily access to the mind of whom I consider to be a world class scrapbooker. And yet after weeks of cutting and sticking and embellishing I looked at my scrimpy album full of bad pictures and impersonal sayings, held up my hands and declared that hell for me would be to do it again.

I admire those who have the patience and skill to scrapbook in ways I was unable to achieve. But my allegiance lies with creating useful things with my sewing machine. 

Is there a seamstress in there trying to get out? Find someone or someones who already have the passion and pick their brains. Learn what they know. Make something that brings you happiness. And if you don't succeed, just know that it's not from lack of creativity. Maybe sewing just isn't your thing. But how will you ever know that unless you try?

#2: "So, you have a twin sister..." 

Involve your family and friends. One great way to make gift-giving more meaningful is to make them something they might like. Searching for potential projects for a specific purpose can reveal new possibilities.

#3: "The Force is strong with this one." 

Confidence shows. The more you practice and learn, the more satisfied you'll be with your results. People notice that and so will you.

#4: "I find your lack of faith disturbing." 

So you're latest project ripped through all the seams. So you unpicked the same stitches for the third time in fifteen minutes. No one can be perfect all the time. My mom's Mother's Day present this year suffered a horrific and gory death by buttonhole in the eleventh hour and I had to come up with something else. Don't give up.

#5: "Who do I have to convince around here that my cape is just too @&%# long?" 

I realize he never spoke these words but how could the evil ruler of an Empire be taken seriously without a well-fitted, intimidating ensemble? For all we know he inherited the thing from the guy/machine who lived before him. 

If you're not savvy enough to create something from scratch (yet!), look for opportunities to improve on things you already have. Got an old skirt in your closet you just don't love anymore? Convert it to something more appealing by adding (or removing?) ruffles, or do something drastic by changing it into a purse. 

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Sewing can be scary. That machine is loud. Sharp needles and pins are involved. But I hope you feel empowered to try anew. #notajedimindtrick

Need some encouragement? Comment below or send me an email so we can talk about it!