Bit of a catchup - Skull Dress went to Vegas and Maker's Workbook

So, it's been a while since my last post, but trust me, I have been sewing!  I went off to Vegas with my skull dress, and I wore it when I went to see Penn & Teller.  They have a thing where they go out into the lobby after and you can meet them if you hang around.  So my dress met Penn & Teller!

That was pretty damn cool!

So after coming home and feeling terribly sad that I was no longer in Vegas, England was cold and I was in no mood to go back to work.  But I got an email that cheered me up somewhat.  I get emails from the guys that sell Swedish Tracing Paper, and they said that they had a new product coming up.  the Maker's Workbook.  It looked divine! You can find full details here http://www.makersworkbook.com

I've tinkered with my own notebooks since starting sewing, and they've never really panned out.  They were just blank notebooks and I never really knew where to start.  So I figured that I'd invest in this and see where it took me.  I was delighted when it arrived as it's beautifully crafted.  The information that it prompts is also incredibly useful.  I can see me referring back to this in future when I repeat patterns.

One thing I really love is that the fabric swatch area changes on each page.  Its annoying when they're in the same area every page, as then there's an annoying bulge in one area of the book.  When they're in different spots, it evens it out a little.  Good thinking guys!

I think instead of rambling on, a few pictures of how I've used it so far will suffice.

V8998 - My first solo dress

I'm really excited about this one, I was browsing dress patterns a few Saturday nights ago, as you do, and absolutely fell in love with it.  Then was having a look through a fabric site (again, as you do) and found the absolute perfect fabric for it.  So on impulse, I decided to go for it.  As luck would have it, the pattern size matches my size perfectly, so I don't have to do any pattern adjustments at all.  Some fitting adjustments might be needed later as I'm on a HUGE diet, but I can deal with that when it happens.

Firstly, the pattern and the fabric:



Oh lord, I love that fabric!  It looks pretty garish on the picture, but that's only close up, from a distance, you can't really see what the pattern is.

Anyhoo, onto the making.  Firstly, I read the instructions that came with the pattern, then again, then once more for good luck.  I think I may have been stalling at this point.  Then got onto cutting out of the pattern, very carefully, while fending Newt off as she realised that she loves tissue paper and started leaping across the paper.  Luckily it's stronger than it looks and it remained reasonably in tact. I stuck the skull fabric in the wash, and then took to pinning the cut out pattern pieces to the interfacing.  I got some sew on interfacing, I wasn't too sure what to get, but I got some from the same place as I got the fabric.  I've not used it before, so I've had a look at how it works, as the stuff that I got appeared to be cut to size off a roll and wasn't in a pack with instructions.

I'm not especially keen on cutting pattern pieces out, I haven't quite got a technique that I gel with yet, and my cutting isn't massively accurate, but seems to be accurate enough to get decent results.  I did notice that the pattern was on the crossgrain, so the skulls were facing the selvedge, and I didn't fancy having sideways skulls on the dress.  So I needed to do some creative cutting, I was advised that cutting all the pieces on the crossgrain instead of the grain would be ok.  Getting all of the pieces on the fabric that I had took some serious Tetris skills.  At one point I thought I might have to get extra fabric, but I was lucky and managed to squeeze them all on.

I then worked through all the instructions, which were pretty comprehensive and easy to follow. and at all of the stages it was looking pretty good.  Going to just post a few photos from the process:

Bodice mostly completed, just need some
hand sewing

My first go at understitching

Skirt sewn up, without lining

Skirt and bodice together

Totally finished - back

Totally finished - front

Me trying on the dress first time (sorry it's not
a great one, I hate photo's of myself!)

Everything complete, including
horsehair and with the little cardigan
that I'll wear with it

I agree, not to everyone's taste, some may indeed recoil in horror, but I'm pretty smitten!  I'm going to Vegas in November, and I have this dress in mind for that, reckon it should fit in nicely.  I'm pretty pleased with it, all the seams line up and the band across the middle isn't wonky.  The zip isn't the greatest zip I've ever put in, but once the little cardigan is on to cover the tops of my arms,  and should cover the zip nicely.  Now that's my first solo dress finished, I plan to do a nice pair of easy pyjama's and a matching robe.  Should give me a nice rest from the stress of linings and zips, and no finger blistering hand-sewing!