Remake of a summer dress
Occasionally, I get a sudden urge to dig out old projects I am not entirely happy with and fix the things that bug me.
Mostly, I sit down and wait until the urge passes - truth be told, to alter an old garment is not at all as fun as constructing a new one and there is always another, shiny project at the horizon - but on a few rare occasions I do something about it. It is normally fun afterwards.
Back in 2008(!) I whipped together a dress which I later wore for a summer party that same year. In 2008 I was about to (eh, sort of) finish my thesis, had started a new (my first real) job and worked ten+ hour days on a regular basis and the dress... was not all that wonderful, truth be told. The fabric was, if I recall correctly, a piece of linen bought sort-of-especially (as in, "this might become a dress some day"), and the decorations were old velvet ribbons salvaged from a several times inherited stash of various ribbons and hatbands.
It's basically a bag, with a drawstring top and shoulder straps made of velvet ribbons. As I recall it, attaching the ribbons in such a way that they would fit when the top was gathered wasn't exactly easy, and the result is so-so. The belt, on the other hand, has a rather nice finish.
This weird corona spring, I suddenly got into my head that I should fix it and remake it into something I was more likely to wear. In a feeble attempt to make it easy, fun and not to demanding (I was suffered from more or less total sewer's block most of 2020) I basically put pins in it until I had a shape I like and cut it apart. Originally, my intention was to use the cut away pieces to make new shoulder straps but the fabric just wasn't enough. Instead I bought broad twill tape in a colour that was almost-but-not quite right and some more dark blue velvet ribbon.
I then realised that I would like the dress to be washable. With the velvet ribbons, that would be tricky and hazardous, and therefore shoulder straps would ideally be detatachable. At that point, the project (surprise, I know!) suddenly took a lot more brain power than I currently had, and the whole thing ended up in the pile of UFOs yet again.
Months passed, but over Christmas my mum* called in a gift card I made years ago and asked if I could fix a few dresses for her. Both dresses turned out fine and I recalled a) how little I like alteration sewing while I'm at it and b) how pleased I am with having done it afterwards. After coming back to my own place, I still had a week left of holidays and true to form, I got round to lift the dress out of the UFO pile four days into that.
Again, I did it all backwards: re-assembled, added a zipper, tweaked the fit a bit, attached the skirt and experimented with shoulder straps. I wanted both an halterneck and "normal" shoulderstraps to alternate between, attached by buttons to make washing of the actual dress easier. My hopes about using the button hole foot of my sewing machine were thwarted (really - in what fabrics does that really work? I could barely fit a double layer of twill tape with sewing allowances turned under into the machine, and even then the machine made only half a buttonhole, getting all confused), so as per usual I had to make them by hand. Therefore, for now, there is only a halter neck option with slightly wobbly button holes.
Without any internal support and really meant to have "proper" shoulder straps the fit is not ideal, but:
I remade the dress into something I might wear
I overcame my fears and inserted a zipper (small step for mankind, big step for me)
I did not give up and throw it all in the naughty pile when I ran into sewing machine related troubles.
I remade the dress into something I might wear
I overcame my fears and inserted a zipper (small step for mankind, big step for me)
I did not give up and throw it all in the naughty pile when I ran into sewing machine related troubles.
Yay me.
The finished result:
The dress got wrinkels when I dressed the mannequin and I was too lazy to fix it, ok? The fit is a bit tighter on the mannequin than on me, and the skirt is a tiiiiny bit uneven, but I call this done now. Good enough is something I should practise, after all.
The back, again a tighter/better fit on the mannequin than on me and the wobbliness in the skirt is a bit larger than life here, due to how the folds behave and the angle of the photo. The belt, as you can see, is laced in the back. Hand-made awled lacing holes, since grommets and I don't mix well.
All in all, I am happy to have finished (totally out of season) and as usual I have every intention of going back fixing things and/or using my stash this year. Like every year. :)
(*No Covid worries, I promise - both my parents are non-risk group and we all keep other contacts to an absolute minimum. We are all the corona-buddies we have.)
