yes I actually finished it!
I know I said back in February I would finish it, but I ran into some issues with it.... again. got upset and threw it to the curb. (well actually I folded it away neatly in a drawer to come back to later.)
the first issue was when I put it on my dress form it got a little bit stretched out, and that just made me mad. more at myself then they dress form though. because I should have known better then to leave the dress on it. were just not quite the same size and our shapes are different. she is a little bigger then me more broad in the shoulders, and just doesn’t squish quite the way I do. all of which I was already aware of. I have tried to find one in my size but they don’t make them in the mass produced easy to get adjustable type. and yes I have thought about making a custom one out of duck tape, or trying to custom order one, but the idea of being wrapped in duck tape petrifies me( I don’t do tight and restrictive very well), and custom dress forms are not only out of my price range, I figure my body isn’t going to stay the same forever so I hate to put that kind of money into something that won’t last . plus I figure maybe one day I will grow into the dress form I have. and I can still use my dress form I just have to be careful, and not leave things on it unless I leave them open.
now back to the dress. I made this in a modern short style from the eighteenth century. I kind of franken-patterned using simplicity #6787 from 1974, and my own randomness. the simplicity is totted as “costumes from the bicentennial“. I didn’t need it to be a skirt and top though which is what this pattern is for. the front of the top though was what I had in mind, so I used it and made only a few small changes. one was to make it dress length, and the other which I decided right at the end was to make it short sleeves as opposed to the three quarter or whatever they have in the pattern. I get so hot in long sleeves, and can not stand it! I could barely take it in the length of sleeves I put on the dress.
for the back of the dress I had to make up completely on my own. I had decided I wanted to do it in kind of a robe à la française style, and I guess I did have some help with this since I looked around at peoples blogs and read how they did theirs. however I wasn’t going nearly as complex as they were so I simplified it a great deal. it took me several tries to get the draping in the back the way I wanted and originally I wanted the front to have a curve in it. I tried really hard to figure that one out and failed, which was another set to the side moment, and finally just giving in that it wouldn’t be exactly what I wanted because what I wanted was impossible with what I had to work with. I do like the way it turned out though. it looks good being straight down. I also wasn’t going to do a ruffle on the neck, because I felt like being lazy, but when it got stretched out the neck was too wide, so that is when I decided to add it. but I am glad I took the time to do it. even though it was quite exasperating and could not be done the way the pattern called for since it was an after thought. so I just winged it and worked.
then I had to tackle the skirt which was crazy easy, and I wrote about in my last post. I was really excited that this time using the ruffle foot I remembered how, and didn't have to look it up. because for some reason I always forget how to make it work.
and the best part of all when it was all said and done I had done my math correctly so the skirt and the over dress were the same length.
and lastly while we were doing photos a falcon flew by and into a tree! but it hid from the camera, I was really impressed though and that is what I am looking at.
