Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Coffee Date??

A few months ago I downloaded a free pattern  from burda called the “Coffee Date Dress”. It seemed easy enough and well, it was free. I had picked up a bolt of vintage corduroy fruit fabric while thrifting with cousin Lauren on her birthday earlier this year, and couldn’t wait to use it. It has blue watermelons and other “Strange Fruit” all over it AND I got about 8 yards for four bucks!! The original pattern has a ruffle that sort of crosses the front in a swirly sort of way and has options for sleeves. At the time I was working with a VERY old, VERY basic machine so I decided to keep it a simple summer dress. You know because simple summer dresses are made out of heavy corduroy (face-palm). I used the “remnant” end that was sort of dirty so I wouldn’t feel so bad if the dress turned out a total failure. Not bad for a first try, even if it is a little tight. I made a test-dress out of muslin and it was HUGE so I changed the seam allowance when I made the corduroy dress. Note to self: Don’t do that again (unless making the piece out of fabric that is similar to muslin-corduroy is NOT). Then to add insult to injury I left it in the dryer too long and shrunk it (but I got the stains out!).

The second time I tried making the dress I bought some oooober cute brown fabric with little paw prints all over it. The fabric was very light weight and sort of see through, so I decided to line the entire dress. Also, I learned from the fruit dress that I needed a longer bodice to avoid the baby doll look. Of course I decided that I, having no formal training what so ever, should do this my way instead of following the simple instructions. The result? A cute dress that is too short, too tight and too crooked to wear. Being a glass half full type of girl, I like to think that I now have an “incentive” dress. A few months at the gym might make this workable. Worse case scenario, I make a cute petticoat to go under to add some length.

This one is my favorite.
I’ve got tons of vintage fabrics but I’m always afraid to use them for fear I’ll mess up, which happens more often than not. Some of you facebook followers may remember the Grandma dot inspired 1-hour picnic dress? Disaster! Some day I’ll learn!

No comments:

Post a Comment