The Novice Dress Post

What you've all been waiting for, all the dresses I've made together in one post for the first time. Five dresses you know plus one new creation! This post certainly has nothing to do with my sister wanting me to make her a dress. Certainly not so she could see what I've done.

I've been wanting to learn how to sew my own clothing for a while.

A) I could get what I want! My tastes often do not follow that of what is on, and my meager budget limits what I can afford to basically whatever the masses are feeling at the moment.

B) I do love being different. I despise wearing the same thing as someone else at the same event. I'm a spoiled youngest child and a territorial creature. I'm often the odd one out, so I made it my pride.

C) It seems more cost effective. In practice, it's not always.

All the people who sew say the best way to learn is to do it, so I jumped in!

Dress #1

The first dress I created and probably my fav of the bunch. I got the idea from seeing all those trapeze dresses on the runway, and thinking $160 dollars was a lot to pay for something so simple. My version cost about $6 and is so versatile!

It was probably my best fabric find. Clearance aisle, how I love thee! I love the movement of this dress. And to think how inadequate I felt going into the fabric store and being asked about what I was making by all the experienced sewers.

Extreme! Pinned back bustle and belted to emphasize that waist.

Layered for the fall and winter, and belted or not for spring and summer.

This dress is basically a circle skirt with straps and buttons sewn on.

Dress #2:

An a line dress that looks best belted like so on me. On this one, I took time to add pockets. This fabric was free, so this dress simply cost the price of the thread I used. And, I still have lots more left over, of both the thread and fabric. It was also my first attempt at a zipper, which was successful for the most time. I cut the slit for it curved so the zipper curves a bit.

Dress #3:

Same fabric, very different dress.

It's still versatile, though, with where I choose to belt it.

Drop waist working on me! Iit's a miracle!

Dress #4 and #5:

My Batman dresses, included into his post for the sake of completeness. They're also mosre complex dresses I tackled. They're both fitted, unlike my previous dresses, and the first completed one features puff sleeves, a cowl hood. They also show how I've improved with putting zippers in.

Dress #6

My lucky number dress. This dress was actually started either third or forth, but got put on hold for the other dresses, since I was having difficulty with it. This look was inspired by Tori Amos's Bouncing of Clouds--the shoe's model name is in fact "cloud"-- and Father's Son, which I choose to think of as a girl being her father's son since she has no brothers, and thus conjures up images a sporty but sweet girl. I love how she always manages to inspire me, since I like mess up the lyrics to some of her songs to work for me. Mishearings that I refuse to correct, in this case, "So it ends so it begins/I'm my father's son./Plant another seed of hate/in a trusting virgin gun [girl]." I switched "gun" from the original lyrics with "girl" and refuse to switch back since it would ruin all my lovly images of the song, and I'd have to create new ones. Probably why I tend to sing the most depressing songs with the hugest smile on my face... (Come on people, you didn't think I was through obsessing over Tori so soon?) And oo! Linkin Park has a new album coming out on the fifteenth. The snips on their website sound different from their previous albums, but it still sounds like it's Linkin Park. This is officially the best ambiguously defined period of consecutive time ever! I fear the backlash of the worst ambiguously defined period of consecutive time ever, but shall ignore said fear until said backlash occurs.

Back on topic, this fabric features little golf icons. I totally need to go miniture golfing this. It was thrifted, and I think it might be from the '60s since it since it says it's copyright "Custom Fabrics Inc. 1966." I made sure to include that on the hem, even if it's upside down.

I'm not sure if I'm quite happy with this dress. It might get altered again...

Reconstruction number 3...

pictured at top. It started off as a boring forever 21 empire waist dress that made my hips look big and showed EVERY line, and then I cut it at the waist, and took it up there to make it a baby doll. I used elastic thread, which gave the seam a scalloped edge I rather like. Black fabric paint for the design on the dress's left and the author of the book from whence the phrase came. Yes, I'm a nerd, but a pretty cute one, if do say so myself.

Outfit Specs: Click the images to be taken to their flickr pages where the info is and you can also see larger versions.

Dressed,

Ivy Frozen