Hemming, Done.

Finally finally managed to hem the 1950's dress. I had wanted to get more of it done today, but what with having a lie in, running various errands in town and washing a large amount of mud off my car, hemming it is all I managed. At least I won't be stabbed in the leg by needles every time I try it on now.

Soo Much Sewing So Little Time

Another day off. Wasted most of it by hanging around in my hometown while my car was in the garage. Did give me a chance to have a good rummage through my local charity shops though, where I got a brown leather bag, a bargain at £4 and a pair of braces which I think I might wear to make some kind of kooky fashion statement but probably never will. I’m thinking about posting a catalogue of my charity shop finds sometime soon. Anyway point is I didn’t get any time to do any sewing. The 1950s dress is still hanging on my wardrobe door filled with pins and I have a pile of fabric and items of clothing that need altering building up on the floor. Current sewing to do list looks something like this –

• Make old jeans into a skirt. Spray with bleach for an interesting effect as seen on femme rationale’s blog.
• Hem elasticated skirt
• Make another elasticated skirt with a circus/carnival theme. I already have the fabric for this. A black cotton lining and a shiny multi coloured harlequin slightly see through material.
• Reduce the length of a patterned button up dress I found in a charity shop.
• See if there is anything I can do with the fabric from a jersey dress that is too small, if not donate to charity shop.
• Reduce the length of a jumper dress to make it a long jumper and eliminate the unflattering clinging around my thighs.
• Fix a couple of holes in the sleeve of a black cardigan.
• Make a black and green party dress from this pattern
• Do something interesting with a large grey mans t-shirt I’ve been using to sleep in. I might shred it or cut it up as seen on childhood flames.
• Make something out of our old flowery curtains. I was thinking of making the 1950’s dress again but there is not enough fabric.
• Make a short skirt from the fabric left over from the current 1950s dress.

And that is ignoring my ever growing list of ideas, which includes two simple black dresses, one for going out, one for everyday to wear with my large collection of coloured and patterned tights; a skirt with lace, a plain black puffy skirt, attempts to copy several Topshop and Karen Millen designs; a dress with pleats around the neck and hem; a dress with several fabric flowers at the shoulder; a garment with my little pony motifs around the hem; a garment with my school name tags sewn all over it; a dress with flowing see through sleeves; Garments made from fabric decorated with apple prints using fabric paint, the images of flowers using spray fabric paint and doodles with fabric pens; a skirt with little chain people around the bottom; a dress with a big silk bow at the neck; a dress with a pocket shaped like a cup cake; a dress with a bleeding heart drawn on; a tunic; a dress with ribbons of different colours sewn from the shoulder….

Impatience

Finally found the time to do some more sewing. I’ve got quite a pile of projects to get through at the moment. Started off by doing some more work on a polka dot 1950s dress I’ve sewing for ages. I thought I’d nearly finished but when I tried it on it didn’t fit properly around the top, which I blame entirely on the fact I don’t have big enough boobs. I think I need to take the shoulders up and alter the darts around the bust. However I’m an impatient sewer and I got frustrated with the dress and my mothers attempts to help, so threw it on the floor to forget about until tomorrow when I might be in the mood to fit it properly. I’ve been reminded why I like making easy shapeless dresses so much. They are so quick and easy and can look just as good as something fitted with the aid of a waist belt. I think I’ll always be too impatient to ever make any really lovely fitted dresses. A body form might help me out, at least then I wouldn’t run the risk of sticking pins into myself when I’m trying to fit stuff. I must get round to making one out of duct tape as suggested here.

Having abandoned the dress I decided to make something simple to make myself feel better so following this tutorial I make an elasticised high waisted skirt. The beige fabric I used had been left over from the curtains in my mothers room. I didn’t get a chance to finish it and won’t be able to until our new iron is delivered on Monday. Trying to sew seams and hems is a big no no without an iron. I also caught up with my personal diary writing which I had got very behind on, still needing to write about events that occurred in August. I like my days off, I won’t want to go back to work on Monday. Yet when I was unemployed I wasted my days watching DVDs.

Okay, time for pictures…

The 1950's dress I'm sewing in it's current state.

Elasticated skirt, I still need to hem it and I've got some gold buttons to add to the waist band.

Here I changed into a cream top to give a better view of the black elastic waist band. I have also pinned up the hem at the front to give an idea of what it should look like when it's finished. I was however intercepted by my mother when checking it out in the only full length mirror in the house (which happens to be in her room) and we agreed I should make it about an inch shorter than shown here, apparently it balances out the fullness better. See also that I still have bruised knees!