Weekly Dress project - Week #10 - tribute to Jack Skellington

(I'm actually on week 12... little behind on the blogging! oops. We'll just pretend that I typed this two weeks ago and catch up from there)

Dress #10 was a custom request from a friend. She wanted to have a fun dress to wear to Disney that was a Jack Skellington theme.

We went with Simplicity 2062 but didn't do the bubble skirt thing and changed it to a simpler, more modest knee-length gathered skirt instead. I wasn't sure about fit, so instead of making a muslin, I dug into my fabric stash and just made the dress exactly as the pattern said (except for the skirt modification)and had her try on the dress to see what needed to be changed. (that dress is for sale here)

Turns out it was perfect except that we added a teeny-tiny small dart at the top of the bust so that it didn't gape open at her cleavage. I think this pattern was meant to be worn super tight, low and with a push up bra. My friend wasn't going for the sexy hooker Halloween costume look, just something fun. The main issue that we had was with the freakin' fabric! After scouring the internet and local stores to find a black with white pinstripes (why is this not available? pin stripes are awesome!), we ordered some shirting fabric that arrived only 1 day before she was to leave town and it wasn't black like it was supposed to be, but gray! What do we do? I run out and buy some awesome suiting fabric in solid black, quickly make the dress and then she pin striped it herself with paint! Luckily she is a henna artist and has mad skills, so she put the paint into her henna cone and striped her own dress. All the night before she left for Disney.

As you can see.... we got it done and it was a huge success! Fit was perfect and I didn't have any trouble with the pattern whatsoever.  In fact, the pattern was so fun and quick, that I decided to make a third!  I've been hoarding this Halloween print since last year and thought it would be fun.

(This dress is for sale here)

Weekly Dress project week number 9 - Rockabilly Swing Dress

This week I let my sister go through my pattern stash and pick the dress for me.  At first I wasn't excited about the choice she made, mainly because there were several other ones that I'd been looking forward to, but I came around once I picked the fabrics.

She chose Butterick B6049 and opted for the halter neck version.

Years ago I had an online boutique where I sold rockabilly style clothing called Addicted to Rockabilly (I still have some of the remaining inventory up on eBay).  I sold a dress from Pin Up Girl Couture that looked pretty much identical to this one.  They called it the Rita Dress.

Above and Below Photos from PinUpGirlClothing.com

There are some differences.  Their version has the halter top with a long tie and the Butterick version has it hooking with a slide hook.  The Butterick version has a fully lined bodice where I could be wrong here, but I don't believe that the Pin Up version was lined. The Butterick version also has pockets!  I love pockets in dresses.
I have a ton of shows lined up for this fall so in order to stock up on inventory, I cut two of these dresses at the same time.  I was making the same size, so I didn't want to use the same pattern.  I made one with a brown and cream cheetah print with deep red accent and the other from a teal with small lavender dots and a bright pink accent.  Both dresses came out fabulous!   I'm sure they will go quick when I get them listed in the shop.

Weekly Dress Project - Week 2 Cynthia Rowley Simplicity 1607

For my second dress, I used Simplicity 1607.  Because my last dress wasn't a good fit, I still need a dress for my 20-year reunion coming up at the end of this month and I was hoping that this would be the one.  

Because money is really tight this month, I dug into my fabric hoard to find a suitable fabric without having to spend money.  I had yards and yards of this sturdy black twill that I thought would look amazing.  Being that this dress already has such in interesting neckline, I thought solid black would still be fun.  I dove in and got to work.

After about 4 hours of work on this dress, I got to the part where I turn the straps inside right and when I did... the fabric just ripped apart!  Completely unraveled!  There was no fixing it.  I thought that maybe it was because of the thickness of the fabric and that I had to pull too hard to try and turn it so I just trashed the straps and decided that I'd do white straps instead.  I put in another hour or so cutting and sewing completely new straps then sewed them onto the dress.  Next step....

When I started to apply the waistband, the fabric from the bodice ripped as well!  There was obviously something really wrong with my fabric and I'm an idiot that I didn't notice it until after five hours of sewing!  The fabric looked and felt sturdy (like jeans) but if you pulled on it... zip... it would just rip to shreds.  

At this point, I threw it all in the garbage and went to bed.

The next day I got myself caffeinated and started over.

The straps were pretty tricky but much easier on the third go round.  And, besides the straps, most of the rest of the dress was pretty simple.  

This dress has an invisible zipper and I've never known how to install an invisible zipper.  I'm fabulous at regular zippers so usually, if the pattern calls for invisible, I just modify and use a regular one.  The main reason for this weekly dress project is to improve, so I took the time to learn how to do it right!  I started with the pattern instructions but they just left me more confused.  I read the instructions on the package, nope.  I dug out an old textbook from my clothing construction class in collage and that didn't help much either.  Finally, I found my teacher on YouTube.  I realized that I would need an invisible zipper foot and wonder tape so I ran out to Joann.  They had the wonder tape in the quilting section but no invisible zipper foot.  Actually, no feet at all for any kind of machine except the one's that are sold in that little machine sales section they have and those won't fit a Singer or Kenmore.  Maybe Joann should concentrate less on selling cheap holiday garbage and sweets and actually stock useful sewing items!   

Sorry, I digress...

Back to the dress talk.  So after calling 4 different stores, I found one that did have a universal zipper foot so I packed a lunch for my kid and drove across town.  

Once I had watched Sue teach me how to do the invisible zipper about ten times, I felt confident enough to try it.  Then I realized that I have no f-ing clue how to put this stupid invisible zipper foot onto my machine!  It came in 4 pieces and looked nothing like Sue's!

I love the internet because it only took a couple of searches to find a helpful blogger to explain things for me. 

I got the zipper in and was pretty proud of myself until I tried the dress on and realized that it wasn't very "invisible" like it should have been.

The Coats & Clark invisible zipper foot that I bought was pretty flimsy and kept sliding while I was installing the zipper so I figured, since I am getting serious about this dressmaking business, I'd invest in better tools and ordered a better one online. 

I didn't make any adjustments to this pattern at all and surprisingly, it actually fit!

Well...kinda.  It is pretty snug. I decided not to wear it for the reunion because it felt a little to bondage-esque for a night out with people I haven't seen in twenty years.  I absolutely love it, but it's just not the look that I want for this event.  

I opened a new Etsy shop to sell a few of the dresses that I'll be making in order to have a little money to buy more fabrics and keep this project going.  So if you are interested in this dress, it is listed there now.