A while ago I took a memoir writing class and while it was interesting it was not really my thing. The course was ten weeks long and at the end of it everyone in the class did a public reading. (which was way out of my comfort zone. I will tell you that.) One of the things the class was instructed on for this public reading was “to dress your best.” so of course in my mind that means I need a new dress.
So I went home and checked out my stash and decided on making a dress using hollywood pattern #1154 as the main part of the dress but altering it to have cap sleeves which came from McCall’s pattern #4549 and were lengthened a bit. The fabric I had decided on is a stretch fabric and the pattern is for non stretch.I wasn’t sure how this would work out but I thought I could at least give it a try. I bought this pattern back in 2017 because it has a personal story involving a dress someone made my grandmother when she was thirteen. I was going to make this dress back in 2017, but stuff and not being able to find the right fabric and blah blah blah, I still have to make that version but that is still for a later date. Back to this dress. Since 2017 I have gone up a few sizes which was intentional but also means this pattern is now too small for me, but being that I was making this out of a stretchy fabric I decided to take the gamble and just cut it to size.
When I sew with knits I sew the seams using only my overlock lock machine, and that stitch is ⅜” wide and with all the seams on a princess cut dress I thought it would probably add the amount I needed, and it did. The dress was perfect. I have always loved this rose fabric, it stretches a little but not a lot so it's fairly stable. I lined it with a cream knit fabric, and since the dress has a stretch to it I opted to leave out the buttons on the side. I had thought about a zipper but it was not necessary. In the end I thought it was such a cute dress, it was fairly easy to make and I felt so cute as I read my story about seeing the northern lights as a small child. (I didn’t wear the hat at the reading just for the pictures)
The reading was a success. I had a good time and felt so proud to do something that made me so nervous like public reading, and wearing the dress actually did help to boost my confidence. Is a public reading something I will do again? Probably not, but I will wear the dress again, and again.
