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*

curtains

I needed some black out curtains for my room. the light pollution at night keeps me up, ad something other then tacking blankets to the windows needed to be done. my room is on the small side though so I didn’t want anything dark, it would make it too dark and gloomy. I found some yellow black out curtains that the package said blocks out 99% of light...... yeah it didn’t my room was still rather bright. even with the curtain doubled. so I came up with the brilliant idea of buying a dark curtain to line the yellow one. I Know how to do this I have done it before so why not do it again? I wish I had taken some pictures while I was doing this but I of course forgot . I am hoping this will work. it will certainly make better.

the front.the picture is dark, cause the curtain blocking out the light.

showing off the lining

the back, this is not the side that shows in my room lol.

so how I did it was I had to completely take the original curtain apart. both the yellow and the black, I was also making the curtains shorter since I am not fond of the curtain to the floor look in my room. one of the main reasons being my sewing machine sits under the window so there is no room for a curtain to fall there. so once I determined the length of the curtain, which I was able to cut the yellow one in half for the correct length. ( I purposefully bought the longer curtain so I could do this. I would have to hem anything I bought anyway, so why not buy the longer and only have to buy one?) then I did some measuring to determine the size of the black curtain next I took apart the black curtain, pressed it out real nice, and marked my hem. I knew I wanted it to have the same two inch hem allowance. I then proceeded to cut it out. then hemmed it. I also hemmed the yellow curtain. next I lay the black on the yellow, black facing in and pinned the black to the sides. next I hemmed up the sides. then back to the table to pin the top in. making sure to have the black underneath the yellow. I then sewed in the rod pocket. I thought about putting in a rod topper. like the original had, but got lazy. its not that important to me, I did leave enough it I just have to have one later there is room. next step. press and clip threads, and all done! two curtains that hopefully help me sleep better.

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