Sheet Dress 1 - Blue - Finished!
Final Item
I have no head or feet.
Inspiration, Design, Planning
See a previous post a few posts ago.
Draft
No draft...
Sewing then?
Yes! There WAS sewing!
First I started with the middle section of the dress as I would need to attach both the top and bottom parts onto this. I measured around my waist and bust, which is where the bottom and top edges of the middle section would go. So, adding seam allowance for the join on one side and overlap to button on the other side, I made the two pieces as much around as my bust. Using the dress dummy and my waist measurement and trying it on myself, I worked out where the two front darts should go and how much they should take in. So these are two darts taking in material at the waist and going up to the bust.
I worked out maybe how much skirt I would need to go around me and gather a bit while still leaving enough material to do the top section. Normally I would probably want as much gather as I can get - the more is more attitude - but in this case I both wanted the pattern on the skirt to clear as well as thinking the dirndl style might look silly with more than a little gathering around the waist. I just had a strong aversion to cutting the skirt rectangle too wide, I couldn't do it, and I thought maybe this was sub-conscious advice that it would be a bad idea. I worked out how long it would need to be, and then the finished skirt ended up about 15cm (6") longer than intended, somehow, which I couldn't take up because of the bordered edge and couldn't be bothered undoing what I'd done - half the dress - when I tried it on and found out.
I assume that at this point I had already or did now sew the darts in the mid-section and sewed the front and back pieces together. There were two layers to this, the shell and the lining, made from a bit of the ubiquitous pale blue thin cotton material I always seem to have more of, whether as material remnants or from sheets. Both these layers were done the same. Then, I gathered the skirt rectangle to the correct length, and sewed it in between the two layers, so all the raw edges from all three pieces would be between the shell and lining layers. Then I sewed up the side of the skirt, but not all the way up, leaving the top undone to enabling me to get in and out. The same side of the midsection is also unsewn. Buttons will do this whole gap up.
So, half the dress is done! Over half maybe! So now I cut out the pieces to go over the shoulder. Then I try them and discover they are too short and not wide enough to go all the way around at the bust. I wasn't sure how this happened. They weren't even remotely the right size. Luckily I had just enough of the sheet left of the correct section - the middle, sparsely patterned section - to cut larger pieces. These were also rectangles, wide enough to be sewn on around the top of the midsection at the must. I tried this on to see how it worked and made a design change; I would not gather at the shoulders after all, but leave them as they are. I had already sewn them on at the back, but had to undo this to make a change. Since they had further to go at the centre, from the middle, out around my neck and back down to the middle, than at the arm, they needed to be sewn in at an angle. Like, normally you would have a constant seam allowance when you sewed two things together. In this case, since the pieces were not chaped but rectangle, it was easier to just sew with more and more material inside the seam allowance on the shoulder pieces than to cut a triangle off the end. Plus it was changable if it went wrong cos nothing was cut.
Which, was lucky.
When I had sewn both shoulder pieces on, I tried it on again and discovered that the inner edge going past the neck was too short now, and was pulling up the middle section of the "midsection" piece, so it wasn't going straight across the front. So I fixed this up, of course the pices were already hemmed. The shoulder pieces were only sewn onto the lining and the outer shell handsewn down on top. Then all that was needed was buttons and button holes. The button holes made by my sewing machine are ugly, but at least I can do it now, and the ugliness is partly covered by the buttons. The buttons are cute little light-medium blue flower shapes, slightly transparent.
All done!!
Comments
If you want to know more, leave a comment and email. Not that you would want to more, I'm just saying.
Since it is a sheet it is also slightly see through, which is ok for the top half with the lined section and the usual underwear, but needs a petticoat or slip or soemthing on the bottom half so that it doesn't look a little inappropriate.
It's not actually the most flattering dress either, although it isn't unflattering. It also looks better in real life I think. Also, the fact that the middle section does not sit straight and is higher on the right is the fault of my hip, not me.
This is such a random item of clothing.... worked out rather well though.
Side pic, not very exciting.
Back view - pretty much like the front, but the back. Cool, a v-neck back...
I have no head or feet.
Inspiration, Design, Planning
See a previous post a few posts ago.
Draft
No draft...
Sewing then?
Yes! There WAS sewing!
First I started with the middle section of the dress as I would need to attach both the top and bottom parts onto this. I measured around my waist and bust, which is where the bottom and top edges of the middle section would go. So, adding seam allowance for the join on one side and overlap to button on the other side, I made the two pieces as much around as my bust. Using the dress dummy and my waist measurement and trying it on myself, I worked out where the two front darts should go and how much they should take in. So these are two darts taking in material at the waist and going up to the bust.
I worked out maybe how much skirt I would need to go around me and gather a bit while still leaving enough material to do the top section. Normally I would probably want as much gather as I can get - the more is more attitude - but in this case I both wanted the pattern on the skirt to clear as well as thinking the dirndl style might look silly with more than a little gathering around the waist. I just had a strong aversion to cutting the skirt rectangle too wide, I couldn't do it, and I thought maybe this was sub-conscious advice that it would be a bad idea. I worked out how long it would need to be, and then the finished skirt ended up about 15cm (6") longer than intended, somehow, which I couldn't take up because of the bordered edge and couldn't be bothered undoing what I'd done - half the dress - when I tried it on and found out.
I assume that at this point I had already or did now sew the darts in the mid-section and sewed the front and back pieces together. There were two layers to this, the shell and the lining, made from a bit of the ubiquitous pale blue thin cotton material I always seem to have more of, whether as material remnants or from sheets. Both these layers were done the same. Then, I gathered the skirt rectangle to the correct length, and sewed it in between the two layers, so all the raw edges from all three pieces would be between the shell and lining layers. Then I sewed up the side of the skirt, but not all the way up, leaving the top undone to enabling me to get in and out. The same side of the midsection is also unsewn. Buttons will do this whole gap up.
So, half the dress is done! Over half maybe! So now I cut out the pieces to go over the shoulder. Then I try them and discover they are too short and not wide enough to go all the way around at the bust. I wasn't sure how this happened. They weren't even remotely the right size. Luckily I had just enough of the sheet left of the correct section - the middle, sparsely patterned section - to cut larger pieces. These were also rectangles, wide enough to be sewn on around the top of the midsection at the must. I tried this on to see how it worked and made a design change; I would not gather at the shoulders after all, but leave them as they are. I had already sewn them on at the back, but had to undo this to make a change. Since they had further to go at the centre, from the middle, out around my neck and back down to the middle, than at the arm, they needed to be sewn in at an angle. Like, normally you would have a constant seam allowance when you sewed two things together. In this case, since the pieces were not chaped but rectangle, it was easier to just sew with more and more material inside the seam allowance on the shoulder pieces than to cut a triangle off the end. Plus it was changable if it went wrong cos nothing was cut.
Which, was lucky.
When I had sewn both shoulder pieces on, I tried it on again and discovered that the inner edge going past the neck was too short now, and was pulling up the middle section of the "midsection" piece, so it wasn't going straight across the front. So I fixed this up, of course the pices were already hemmed. The shoulder pieces were only sewn onto the lining and the outer shell handsewn down on top. Then all that was needed was buttons and button holes. The button holes made by my sewing machine are ugly, but at least I can do it now, and the ugliness is partly covered by the buttons. The buttons are cute little light-medium blue flower shapes, slightly transparent.
All done!!
Comments
If you want to know more, leave a comment and email. Not that you would want to more, I'm just saying.
Since it is a sheet it is also slightly see through, which is ok for the top half with the lined section and the usual underwear, but needs a petticoat or slip or soemthing on the bottom half so that it doesn't look a little inappropriate.
It's not actually the most flattering dress either, although it isn't unflattering. It also looks better in real life I think. Also, the fact that the middle section does not sit straight and is higher on the right is the fault of my hip, not me.
This is such a random item of clothing.... worked out rather well though.
Side pic, not very exciting.
Back view - pretty much like the front, but the back. Cool, a v-neck back...
Comments