Updates (and bad pictures)

Apparently, changing from a level up plan to a real life plan is good for production.  I’ve made, and fixed, the maxi dress.  I’ve made a casual dress using a stashed black with daisies dress that I do not remember buying (hmmm—how long has that been in the personal fabric story??).  I also made a third black dress that had its challenges.

Bwahaha, yes—challenges.  That is what we will call them.  Challenges.  Ever tried to deal with an air threading serger that has a blocked channel? Enough said.

Dress 1: (I have no idea why the picture is sideways):

Maxi dress, crossover empire bodice, three quarter sleeves.
Rayon poly Lycra fabric. 

I’m cloning a brown dress that fits me perfectly that I don’t wear because it is brown and it doesn’t have pockets.  This took 2 m of rpl.  I used a free dress pattern from the blog: itsalwaysautumn.  I’m lucky to be the same size and I have the same life vibe.  I shortened the suggest skirt length 6” and the bodice length an inch. I lengthened the sleeve to three quarters, and added pockets to the skirt.  Love it, feels like wearing pjs.

Dress 2:  (why is my selfie sideways?)

This is the same pattern, just below knee length, in a printed mystery knit crepe.  Not yet hemmed though I did wear it at school already.  I need to learn to use my cover stitch machine before I can hem it.  But the fabric doesn’t fray.

Dress 3: (but, why is this one the right way around?? So weird!)

Same pattern.  This is a very fine weight double faced double knit.  One side is silver, the other side is black.  It has a shine and drape but not a lot of stretch. I eked the dress out of just under 2m of fabric.  The dress is tight, and will probably end up as a back up piece unless I lose weight (always possible though unlikely). If I manage to fine the plain rayon poly Lycra I wanted to use for this dress, I will definitely remake it.

Sewing this dress was a comedy of errors.   I ran out of top thread in my sewing machine while I was top stitching the side seam and didn’t notice.  I ran out of looper thread on my new to me serger and didn’t notice.  The air threader on the serger didn’t work because the  tube was clogged from me running out of thread.  It took Hubbie and I at least half an hour to figure out how to clear the tube and then how to thread the machine because the instructions did not work.  I don’t know why.  I eventually threaded fishing line through the tube on the lower looper, tied the thread on, and pulled it through.  After that, the machine just purred along.  There must be some trick with the air threaded serger I don’t know yet.

Overall:
I love this pattern.  I will definitely make this pattern again (and again lol).  The shape suits my body and it is comfortable. Here are pictures from the first three dresses.  (And I have no idea why they are sideways, again...)