March's Dress

March was kind of a crazy month, since we found out we were going to move and were trying to get everything done in a hurry. Luckily, the first week of March we were just in limbo waiting for the third party of our house-selling group to get stuff together. So I took advantage of that time by making March's dress early. It also didn't hurt that our Real Estate agent told me I couldn't sew when our house was on the market.

Thanks to some online inspiration browsing, I decided to make my own pattern for this dress using these two dresses as starting points:

And I documented part of the process, so more pics this time.

First I pinned together the bodice with the pleats where I wanted them.

Then I put together the skirt. I've had this striped fabric forever and I've always had something like this in mind for it. So I call this dress my Candy-Striper Formal Dress.

Then I added the lining. Since I didn't want pleats in the lining, I had to take the bodice off and keep it pinned together to use it as a pattern. Here's the dress with the lining sewn in and flipped around.
And the final product.

Things I've Never Done Before This Dress:

• While I have made a pattern for a dress before from nothing but my imagination (see Exhibit A)Exhibit A

I have never made one without a pattern. I didn't take measurements or trace anything for this dress. That was kind of cool.

What I Learned Making This Dress:

• It is SO MUCH EASIER to draft a dress with a dress form. Wow, that could have been my best sewing purchase up to this point. I had to do very little fitting with this dress, which was hugely surprising to me, in an I-can't-believe-you-just-cleaned-the-whole-house-for-me-without-me-even-asking sort of way.
• Half circle skirts really are ridiculously easy to make. Especially if you only have one seam, which I didn't since I wanted pockets.
• I hate JoAnn's. I went hunting for navy blue lace for the bottom, which as you can see from the pictures was pretty much essential for this dress. I went to Hancock Fabric first, since they were closer to my house. They had lace in every color except navy. The saleswomen said, "Navy's not really in right now." To which I replied, "I thought the point of sewing was that you didn't have to care about what is in." I said it more jokingly than I meant it, but I hope the point came across. So I hauled the increasingly sad baby to JoAnn's. First, I couldn't find anyone to help me for about 30 mins. Then, when I finally got someone's attention, they had to find someone else to help me since they didn't know what they were doing. Then my conversation with the women went something like this:

Woman: "Well, it looks like we don't have any wide navy lace"

Me thinking: "I KNOW! I looked for 30 mins before anyone helped me!"

Woman: "And it looks like we don't have any fabric lace in navy, either."

Me: "Well, apparently navy isn't in right now."

Woman: " . . . would eyelet work?"

Me: "Yes, eyelet would work."

Woman, responding to person in annoying headset: "Oh, apparently we've discontinued our eyelet."

Me thinking: "Discontinued your eyelet? Why would you discontinue your eyelet? Eyelet has always been popular."

Woman: "We might have some back in the bargin section."

Woman, after looking briefly in the bargin section: "Well, it looks like we don't have any here. Looks like it's time for Plan B."

I was so furious I almost shouted, "You are Plan B! I can't believe you just wasted my time! I hate you!" But I didn't. Instead, I went home and did what I should have in the first place . . . looked on eBay. Two days later, my beautiful lace came in the mail and by the 10th of March, my dress was finished. And my favorite so far. But I'm not going to mention all the mistakes in it cause I'd like to be the only one that sees them every time I wear it. That way I can justify wearing it more.