Picture of Novelty Dress

As February draws to a close (cheers for the extra day, Leap Year :P) it’s time for me to review the challenge I set myself for the month here.

I faced my sewing pattern fears and sewed my first ever pattern dress, from this absolutely outrageous painting novelty fabric:

 How absolutely ridiculous!

Casual book prop flip.

I used the Simplicity 1419 and I have to say, it was a piece of cake! Haha

The most time consuming, and only frustrating part was cutting the actual paper pattern pieces (followed by the fabric pieces). It took *forever*! But at least that step is already done for next time 🙂
My measurements put me at a size 16 bodice and a size 20(!!!) skirt. I kind of struggled to blend the two sizes, and ended up with a bodice piece cut like this:

I thought it looked completely wrong, but the finished dress fits me perfectly so I must have done good 😛

The pattern called for an invisible zip, which I have no experience with. I didn’t realize an invisible zip was specified until I was up to that step, so I’ve just used a regular zip. The print on this fabric is pretty forgiving, and I think it turned out okay.

Once I’d cut them I thought the sleeve pieces were going to be uncomfortably tight (a recurring problem for me in store bought dresses) but the fabric has a little ease so they’re pretty spot on 🙂 I might draft them a little bigger next time, just to experiment.

All in all I’m extremely pleased with this pattern, and I have the fabric for my second dress in the wash as I type this 😛 I even think I’m going to make some work dresses from some more conservative fabric.

I really didn’t think I would wear my practice dress because of the print, but I paired it here with a cute collar and wore it out to see Hail, Caesar! which I really liked, despite finding it very odd.

Wrong King Henry..

For March I’m going to challenge myself with using my overlocker, another thing I’m a bit scared to try

 

Have you done something recently that turned out easier than expected?