A good while ago (last summer), in a spirit of optimism and good will, I promised Girl Lacer I’d make her a party dress for her birthday, we even brought the pattern (me in John Lewis “No, no, that’s too complicated”) and the fabric (me in John Lewis “Are you sure you don’t want to buy something else?”). And then the pattern and the fabric sat untouched for months and then the dawning realisation, her birthday party was Sunday.
Now, I don’t sew well when stressed or in a hurry (I should clarify the stressed bit, sometimes if I’m stressed by something completely different, sewing helps but if I’m in a hurry and the project isn’t going well, my sewing abilities seem to decline exponentially and my magical karma sensing sewing machine behaves correspondingly, the tension goes screwy, needles break and on this project, even the bulb blew). So I’ve spent the last few days cursing my bright idea, at each stage I was ready to quit and say “hey, wear jeans”, but I perservered and in the end, well I’m still not completely happy with the bodice but it’ll do, I’m happy with gathers / pleats (last time I attempted those, they were a disaster), the fabric, which was Girl Lacer’s choice and that I initially hated (and an Amy Butler to), I think looks great with this dress, I was worried the print would be too big but the pleats help break the pattern down a bit. This was from Burda 9696, option C (the simplest option, I wasn’t giving Girl Lacer any chance to opt for the ruffled version) and was my first project from a commercial pattern (i.e not from a book or a Cloth Kit) and all I can say is that if books / Cloth Kits / (from what I’ve heard, people like) Oliver & S can write easy to understand patterns, why not everyone else? But still, what I’m still loving about sewing, is how every project I learn something new, improve on something, for this one it was the gathers, need the perfect bodice project now! Oh and I learnt if I stroke the sewing machine and ask it what’s wrong (honestly, I did that) and then give it a piece of scrap fabric to chew, it’s a lot happier.
