Whilst tidying I found the photos from Bri and Beej's wedding in May- the ones from the photobooth. This lead me to go into town to buy a frame for those. On the way back from Town I went into the Singer shop- I don't usually go in there- I'll freely admit that theyr deals on Sewing machines are really good- and some of their haberdashery items are very reasonable, on the whole the Fabric shop by the bus station represents much better choice and value, however, by this point I'd met the wife and he wanted to go to lidls and I thought he might actually throw a fit if I made him walk back to the other side of town.
Today though, The singer shop came up trumps-I got some white printed cotton with blue flowers on it and some mint green linen for my 50s style top and skirt, respectively- that's the next project for when I'm at my mum's.
They also had some sateen fabric on offer £3.50 p/m I got in my head that an old 80s prima pattern I'd been meaning to have a go at needed 3m of fabric, so I got that too (It turned out 1.5m was all it needed- so now I have loads of midnight blue sateen so make something else out of).
I got home, put everything away and sorted out those photos (you can't call me half a job!) then settled down to make my shift style dress- theoretically it's easy- it's got an early 90s look- it's a front and back- so 2 pieces, and a bust dart in each side of the front, sew it together and bob's your uncle.
Sateen is not so simple.
I cut the pattern out OK.
Took an offcut to test for the machine tension- That was ok- it took a bit of getting used to and I spent a but longer testing stitches that I would do normally. Put my darts in.
Then the machine started acting up.
If I was to give advice to any other novice sewers out there: Buy good quality cotton thread!
I was using a navy blue cotton which I hadn't used before- It just kept snagging. I suspect it was a cheapy from a long time ago.
For the pennies saved at the time, it wasn't worth it for the effort and energy spent unclogging the machine every 5 minutes and the mess it made of my tension every time it got caught or split. stupid thread!
I did finish the dress. Very slowly and with lots of swearing- At one point traff even brought me strawberries to try and cheer me up a bit, and the end result is pretty good, so I'll take that- but I'd probably have finished an hour earlier if I'd used good quality thread (And maybe even shaved a bit more time off it I'd considered the nightmarishness of the sateen! Whats wrong with a nice light polycotton?!)
Anyway, The finished article:
I took the neckline lower than in the pattern, only because the style is quite outdated, but with a lower neck it looks a bit more current. This is a pattern which my mum has clearly cut and made a number of times judging by all the pin holes in it- she is much taller and has a much more athletic figure than I do- so can carry off such a daring hemline. I am going to try and get a lacy trim for the bottom hem to give me a few more inches, and therefore a little more modesty!
however you look at this, I put this dress together in 4 hours. I could easily get away with wearing it clubbing or for drinks, So I'm chalking this up as a win!
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