My First Dress

Clearly, not my first ever dress. But the first I have ever, ever, made for myself with my own hands!

(It's not quite finished yet!)

In August, I was utterly inspired by this post from verykerryberry (who was really lovely when I emailed her from nowhere to introduce myself and ask permission to link to her blog, and said very kind things to me!). Within a day of reading her blog I had ordered material and signed up for a local dressmaking course. I have made just two quilts in the past, and started a 3rd and 4th, but have zero experience of dressmaking and found the idea of it really intimidating. However, Kerry's post and the pockets in the dress won me over (I LOVE pockets!).

Our local night-class teacher was brilliant, really knowledgeable and approachable, and made us feel like we could tackle these patterns no problem! OH!! The pattern. I used the same as Kerry: Cynthia Rowley for Simplicity 1801. It was quite straight forward, though without my teacher I would have been utterly lost as a first-timer. You can see below, some of the steps involved in getting the dress together.

Oh wow, these came out tiny! Sorry - I will practice harder. But you can see the swish pink lining I got!

I bought this fabric at Hickey's in Galway, Ireland. It was on sale - yay! I decided to go for a sale fabric for class because I expected there to be much seam ripping and gnashing of teeth and didn't want to ruin the beautiful fabric I impulsively bought online. How beautiful are Dan Bennett's fabrics (and artsy products too!)!!?? I was seduced by his Ruby collection and bought Tattoo Aqua and Dawn Limestone so I too could have a contrasting waistband and pockets as ingeniously done by verykerryberry!

Here is where I have to apologise for the bad pictures - I'm stuck with my phone right now, unfortunately. So you'll have to try and imagine this picture a little less yellow for the mo... Sorry!

Bizarrely, I bought these fabrics from fabricworm, a US-based online shop, and had them shipped to Ireland for cheaper than I could have if I'd bought them from the UK...

So now that I have 'practiced' (i.e. cursed at, but persevered) on my sale fabric, I shall be shortly (this weekend) be cutting into these beautiful fabrics for the start of Round 2! Between now and then, I will be inserting the sleeves and hemming my very first dress. Pictures (in natural light) will follow of the finished product!!

Aoif :)