Dressmaking dummy

I am a bit of an amateur seamstress.   

I come by it naturally--except for the amateur part.  One grandma has made amazing doll clothes for as long as I can remember--so amazing she sells them at craft shows, antique malls, and even a boutique in Branson if I'm remembering properly.  She and my great aunt made the veil for my wedding, my Junior year prom dress, prairie dresses so I could dress up like Laura Ingalls Wilder/Anne Shirley, and a medieval dress for a choir event. Another grandma crochets when she's not painting ceramics.  I've heard stories about my great-grandma, who was such a talented seamstress she would make clothes for my mom just by looking at them in stores. 

Every few months the combination of genes and childhood experiences coalesces into the desire to create something.  My first big attempt at voluntary sewing a cover for a chair I bought at the DAV before I left for college.  Grandma Mary Lou helped me create a zebra slipcover.  It was pretty awesome.  That $5 chair is actually still sitting in our living room, although the zebra is starting to look a bit worn.  For some time after that, my only projects were house related--pillows, curtains, reupholstering a couch. 

Then I found some adorable fabrics and started making little purses and tote bags.  Friends and family had these showered upon them.  They humored me like the fantastically kind people they are.

I made my nephew a patchwork blanket.  Then I made myself one from the purse scraps.  Ben adopted it as his own, even though the primary color was pink.  I decided to save my poor blankie from Ben by making him one in the fall.

Late in the fall, I crossed over.  I decided to attempt to make clothing.  I made an open, semi-wrap cardigan from excess fabric from Ben's blanket.  I ended up making another for my youngest sister.  Encouraged by my success, I decided to make a skirt. 

My budding confidence misled me, as the skirt was mostly a failure.  I don't really believe in patterns---partially because they are so expensive but also because it was easier to copy clothes I already owned rather than trying to be my own living dressform.  I took a stack of paper grocery sacks (thanks, Whole Foods!), pulled out my favorite pencil skirt, and started tracing.  The concept was solid, the execution beyond shaky.  The skirt looked fine from the front, but the back was a disaster.  I read through half a dozen online blogs about how to install zippers and still managed to make a spectacular mess of it, leading to a disaster of unflattering pleats, a back seam that zigs madly inward as if the skirt's only dream is to be a skort, and a gaping hole at the base of the zipper.  I shoved it into a sack in the guest room and swore off zippers.

Then my sartorial muse showed up again and I decided to take another stab at clothing.  I planned to avoid my toothed foe by recreating a pullover dress I bought on clearance that's made of a stretchy, almost sweatshirt-like jersey.  I've worn it to work, to the symphony, to church, out to dinner.  It's the fabulous everydress.  However, Max Azria apparently has more extensive fabric choices than I do, as my choices were either nice non-stretchy fabric or paper thin polyester cheapness. 

I chose a black and white boucle, and faced the fact that I had doomed myself not only to installing a zipper, but an invisible zipper. 

However, my courage was rewarded.  It took a solid Saturday, but I managed to make a dress.  I found an online tutorial on invisible zippers that was more useful than all the regular zipper ones I'd read before.  Had it not been written in 2006 I would have e-mailed the writer with probably frightening gratitude. 

The end result is below.  I need to take it in a bit on the top, but I think it's pretty impressive for my first try at a dress.