Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Pin 58--Part II

Remember this?
No? Okay, go read Pin 58 here, and then come back.
I finally finished it. This simple dress turned out to be a big experimental project for me! I stitched and ripped out so many things on this dress I am surprised it is not mangled to rags.

So I wore it once with the thin red belt. The dress kept slipping around and up and down and I kept ending up with these ridiculously baggy armpits. I needed a more permanent waist. I tried a few different styles of elastic empire waists, but none of them fit just how I was looking for.

This is a huge piece of fabric, too wide  and too long for me. I had to bring it in a bit on each side because there was just too much to gather and still have it look right. I also lopped it off at the knee.

End the end, I went back to my old stand-by solution--shirring. I put the belt on where I wanted the waist to be, took a piece of chalk and drew all the way around and then shirred this line for seven rows.

When I was happy with the waist I decided to take an additional 4 inches off. I probably would have been fine with taking of 2.5 or 3, but too late now. I showed my husband the dress before I took the additional length off. His response, "Hmm. Well, its actually a little bit hot." Geez. Thanks. You have so much confidence in me. However, after I took the length off  his opinion improved greatly. Men.

So I know you are just dying to see how it turned out and I won't make you wait any longer:


Total cost: I started with $7 of fabric. I bet this is about 1/2 of that now.

Total time: If I was going for this from the start, I bet it would have been about an hour project.

Final verdict: I love this dress for summer. It is light weight and breezy and so, so comfortable. However, it is NOTHING at all like the original pin. I did learn a lot about what styles I can and can't wear though!

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