Birdieblue

Dressmaking, it’s not that easy!

As many of you will know I’ve been steadily crafting over the last couple of years and never cease to be enthusiastic about learning new skills and learning how to make things for myself.

Something that I’ve tried many many times is dressmaking, this, for me, has been very disheartening, infuriating and more than frustrating at times.  My first dressmaking attempt ended up with my managing to completely sew up the armholes and not realising until I’d put the dress on! Needless to say, that one went in the bin.  Followed by a few others too.  I had a fairly successful attempt not that long ago, but had completely failed to take note of the measurements and sizes on the pattern, which resulted in a dress that was too small and also ended up (in anger) in the bin!

After all of these attempts I’ve managed to understand a dress pattern (it’s like another language) fairly easily, so I decided I would have a go at the dressmaking workshop with the lovely Francine at COW Studio in the Jewellery Quarter ( http://www.creativeopenworkshops.com/ ).

I have to report that it was a lovely day, so much nicer to have someone to show you where all the pattern pieces go rather than trying to read and make sense of some of the crazy words you see on a pattern.  It also made a refreshing change to be with other crafters, so when you make a mistake you have someone to laugh with rather than cry/scream/shout/swear (delete as appropriate!!).

So here are some of my photos, although I didn’t quite manage the finished article, I still have a few threads to tidy up, shoulders to sew and hem to do, but hopefully I’ll make light work of those tonight.  The finished piccy will follow :)

So first stage………pattern pieces cut, interfacing fused on and ready to get myself onto the sewing machine……… (I find the cutting of material and preparation a little dull but I guess patience pays off in the end).

Top half (bodice) sewn together and my ruffle attached. 

Close up of my ruffle and material.  My lovely friend Clare randomly bought me a piece of material on the way to the class and it just happened to fit in VERY well (as you can see!).

The top or bodice of my dress, waiting to be sewn to the rest of it! (More pictures to follow when it’s done!)