my continuing adventures in arts and crafts
SO: in between writing stories about hot women and wasting my time on the internet, I occasionally sew my own clothes. I've always drafted my own patterns (I don't have the attention span or the trust in other people's judgment to use commercial patterns), but until recently I hadn't tried anything more complicated than a pencil skirt (which is not very complicated at all). But I had a break from school this last couple of weeks, so I libraryed an armful of dressmaking textbooks from the middle of the last century and I am officially Teaching Myself to Drape.
Long story short, I'm working on a dress. Now a dress is really just a skirt (easy) attached to a bodice (hard)--though the attaching part is way more difficult than it looks. We'll see how I do when I get there, BUT I have successfully drafted a bodice and that's a major step! I mocked it up with a tacky bedsheet from the Salvation Army (old home dressmaker's trick) and it looks surprisingly like a real garment, even at this early stage in the game.
First, from the front. Don't worry, it's not that baggy on me; my dressform was a garage sale find and, while it shares my shoulder and bust measurements, is alarmingly wasplike in the waist area. I have a pretty small waist, guys, and my clothes hang like a tarp on this thing:
And a close-up of the front waist darts, which I placed myself and am very proud of:
From the side! The finished dress is going to have a kimono cap sleeve, but I need to lower the armscye a little bit to get it to hang properly:
Aaaaand from the back, jeez I must be really proud of this thing:
Next step: draw the neckline. I'm thinking a scoop, but not too low. Something classy. Am I right?
Long story short, I'm working on a dress. Now a dress is really just a skirt (easy) attached to a bodice (hard)--though the attaching part is way more difficult than it looks. We'll see how I do when I get there, BUT I have successfully drafted a bodice and that's a major step! I mocked it up with a tacky bedsheet from the Salvation Army (old home dressmaker's trick) and it looks surprisingly like a real garment, even at this early stage in the game.
First, from the front. Don't worry, it's not that baggy on me; my dressform was a garage sale find and, while it shares my shoulder and bust measurements, is alarmingly wasplike in the waist area. I have a pretty small waist, guys, and my clothes hang like a tarp on this thing:
And a close-up of the front waist darts, which I placed myself and am very proud of:
From the side! The finished dress is going to have a kimono cap sleeve, but I need to lower the armscye a little bit to get it to hang properly:
Aaaaand from the back, jeez I must be really proud of this thing:
Next step: draw the neckline. I'm thinking a scoop, but not too low. Something classy. Am I right?