the black bow dress

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.

* This blog is not to be used for training AI*

black skirt

this is the skirt I made to go under the black bow dress. its still waiting for a bit of a press and to be de-threaded, and de-fuzzed. what is it about black cotton that attracts so much lint? the skirt itself was a simple gathered skirt, no pattern. I did make use of my ruffle foot to make the double ruffles on the bottom. I also used the rolled hem function on my overlock machine, for the hemming of the ruffles. I love that function, its so much easier then making a tiny topstitch hem. and it looks really cute too.
I am actually nearing completion on the black bow dress. a few more days and I should have it finished. got the hem in today. but am still trying to decide whether or not I want to put black bows down the front. I could make them removable. if I do it will be the very last thing I do. I am on target for my goal of completion by next week.

* This blog is not to be used for training AI*

back to the drawing board.

I decided I really need to get back to working on some of these unfinished projects I have going. most of them I either got bored of working on, ran out of something, and keep forgetting to purchase it while I’m at the store. or could not get a crucial piece that I really thought would be an easy thing to acquire but was/is not. and last of all I get frustrated or lost in putting something together, put it aside to work out later and never get back to it. or it might be a combination of a few of those things.
my black bow dress is a case in point. I became very frustrated at it because I was having trouble figuring out how to get the sleeves and lining to do what I wanted. plus even though I am using a pattern for the basic shape I’m not really using the pattern exactly. I completely changed the back of this dress from what the pattern called for. it calls for a back zipper, but because of the back needing to be one piece I have to put the zipper in the side. and that is where the problem with the lining and sleeves and everything came into play, so the dress was set aside.
I pulled it out last week and realized my issue wasn’t all that much of an issue. and I have seen this exact thing on formal wear dresses. I basically just need to make a clip in the lining. something so simple but I could not see because I was mad at the dress.
after getting the dress pulled back out I also realized I had used the fabric I had for lining the skirt to make a blouse with. it was white cotton, and that is never safe if it sits too long. I was going to try to figure this dress out a few months ago as well, but when I saw I didn’t have the fabric I just put it back. this time though I went out and purchased what I needed, and so far the dress looks as if maybe I might actually finish it this year.

I also want to point out that I only have that black trim pinned to the dress to see how it would look. its not going to hang down like that. and the skirt under it is a petticoat, not the actual skirt I still have to make that too. so this is my first sewing project for the year, my goal is to finish it this month..... we will see.

black bow dress.....

so I am currently in the middle of sewing my black bow dress. which is not even cut out in its entirety because I am unsure of the way I want to finish it. so I am working in stages while I come up with exactly what I want to do. I have the idea for the bodice completed so I am working on putting that together. here is how far I have gotten ......


it was coming together very nicely, I was just about to put the under stitching around the back neck piece when to my horror I found a hole! NOOOOOOO!!!!!!

I cut the piece on a fold and it must have been on the underside, so I didn‘t see it. I wish I had seen it before I sewed the whole thing together. I contemplated for just a moment trying to repair the hole, but I knew I would never be happy with it. so now I am tearing apart a huge amount of what I just put together. I have enough fabric to re-cut the piece but still, I hate having to redo it, and of course I have put this together in a rather complex manor so yes more then one would think has to come apart.

* This blog is not to be used for training AI*