So, the ball I wrote about in my Sewing Projects post came and past . . . about two months ago, but better late than never! These balls are some of the highlights of my year. Not only do I get to dance for hours, but I also sew the gowns for my sister and myself! This was my first year sewing two dresses at one time, which was a little scary! I started on Amelia's dress first because I had something to wear if I couldn't make mine, but she didn't have anything. And let me just tell you, were there some bumps along the way! It wasn't too terrible but the fit is always an issue. I ended up making three or four mock-ups and the pattern piece where I put all of the alterations ended up looking very different from the original. The finished garment looked pretty good, but she couldn't move her arms very much which wasn't the best. My sister hates wearing dresses, she'd rather wear shorts and a ball cap, so I don't have many pictures of her wearing it because I didn't want her to have to get all dressed up again, but here are a few from the ball.
The material for Amelia's dress was (of course) a bed sheet. It was a gorgeous pale yellow with a faint shine. It reminds me of the color of fresh churned butter, which is an oddly specific color, but that is what it looks like to me! It was a bit annoying to work with as it wrinkled very easily and was kind of delicate. It also didn't help that my iron kept spitting things out and marking the fabric, and I must admit I almost cried because it ruined at least one of the front bodice pieces, and since I used a sheet I had a limited amount of fabric, but I had enough to cut another piece out and it all worked out! And also there is the beautiful lace skirt overlay (which is actually a curtain :) that I think makes it really beautiful, even though, as you can see in the top picture on the left, I somehow got messed up and it doesn't reach the bottom of the skirt even though I pinned it sooooo carefully ): But oh well, it still looks pretty to me!
Though Amelia does not like to dress up, I, in all my girly girl glory, do. So I put my dress back on and took some pictures.
My dress is not actually white, though the pictures make it look like it is. The fabric has tiny white and purple stripes on it which are not very visible in real life! The close-up below shows the stripes, but they are very, very tiny.
The sleeves of my dress were the one thing I knew I could change relatively easily and give he dress a different look than my last one. Before I ever start sewing I look on pinterest to get ideas and get a plan for the end result. Well, I found this sleeve and thought it was really pretty and did not look too hard. But . . . it turned out because I only had the sleeve pattern that came with the original dress
pattern, it was too hard. I couldn't figure out a way to alter the pattern to make it work. But I am actually happy that it did not work, because I like the one I ended up with, and let's be honest, my arms are quite ugly, so the more they can be covered the better! I found this gorgeous dress on pinterest and just LOVED the sleeves. Mine definitely do not match the magnificent poofyness of hers, but they are good enough for me!
It was still a bit hard to figure out a pattern for it but I had the base puffed sleeve, and as with most of my sewing problems I made a bunch of mini mock-ups to see how they would work. I don't like using a lot of fabric, and didn't want to take the time to make a bunch of full scale sleeves, so mini things always come in handy. I made five different sleeves, all hand sewn, but finally came up with the one I thought would work the best. I basically just took the puffed sleeve pattern and widened and elongated it. The hard part was figuring out how much, but I think I did a pretty good job! (:
I had a wonderful time at the ball, and actually felt pretty good in my dress! Let's just say I'm not the skinniest, prettiest person so it's always nice when I actually feel good in what I'm wearing (: Well, this seems like such a long post and I am getting tired, so I'll sign off now.
Mattie G.
Comments