20 August 2007

The Making of a Dress

This weekend I decided to tackle my first sewing project outside of class. I went with a pretty simple vintage dress pattern and picked out some inexpensive vintage fabric so I wouldn't be out big bucks if things went terribly wrong. Well, I managed to finish the dress yesterday afternoon, but not without a few set backs. Let's just say the seam ripper and I became very good friends. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but I'm chalking it up to a learning experience and I'll definitely be able to make some improvements the next time I tackle that pattern.


So many to choose from!

My final selections from the store all ready to go.


Hard at work on the gathers for the neckline. For some reason attaching the neckband gave me fits. I sewed it on three different times!


Still sewing. There were points that I felt like scrapping the whole thing and starting over.


Here's a shot of the finished piece. I was happy to finish it, but it's not with out its flaws (if you can't see them in the photo, I'm certainly not going to point them out!) It'll be fun to wear it around the house. Maybe the next one I make, I'll actually wear out in public!

6 comments:

Rhiannon said...

I'm loving these sewing posts--you're inspiring me to make another '60s dress--yours looks so modern!

Sally Jane Vintage said...

Thanks! I'm in a sewing frenzy right now so hopefully there's more to come. If you sew another dress make sure to post it. I'd love to see it!

- jesse said...

That is adorable! I love these sewing posts too! Inspiring. I've put your blog in my RSS feed.

Can I use this pic as an example of hand-sewn stuff with a link to your blog/store in my blog? You already say a lot about vintage on here but if there is anything in particular you wanted to say as well, I can certainly put it in. (If you want to be on my blog, etc.)

I really like your blog a lot.

bee said...

this looks great -- what type of sewing machine do you have?

Sally Jane Vintage said...

At home I have a Brother machine. I think it cost about $100 from Kmart. It's certainly not fancy, but it does what I need it to do. In class I get to use a Husqvarna which is amazing! Those machines pretty much sew for you but they start at around $700.

mollypool said...

i adore this dress! wear it out!