Showing posts with label party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label party. Show all posts

Tuesday 24 February 2015

My very gathered party skirt

It's been a long time since I sewed something for myself. I sewed for my daughter, for my mum, for my friends' kids but nothing for me recently.

It all started from the fabric. I liked the shiny taffeta and the first thing I imagined was a skirt. The stiffness of the fabric would be great for achieving shape. So here is what I made for myself : a very gathered party skirt.


The skirt is knee length, with an invisible zip on the back. For the construction I used three rectangles - one for the front and two for the back skirt. I haven't added flare as I wanted to keep things as simple as possible. I have decided that this would be a quick project (not that quick in the end).


Unfortunately, that skirt is not a garment I would be wearing very often. It would probably gather dust in the wardrobe for a year before the next wear. Next time I sew for myself I will make something for an everyday wear.









Sunday 21 December 2014

Ready for a party

The party season is here and we are ready for it. With Christmas, New Year and Eva's birthday and another birthday in line I couldn't resist making something special for her. Here it is - a taffeta dress in a princess style with a full skirt, pleat detail on the front, capped sleeves and full back button fastening.





I used the taffeta fabric and the black lace that I bought in Bulgaria not long ago (I wrote about them in my previous post). The taffeta fabric is amazing. It is 'chameleon' fabric as it changes its colour according  to the light. Just check how different it looks on these two photos.

"cool" purple 

''warm'' purple


I wanted to use the lace in the dress but wasn't sure where to attach it. It took me a week or two to decide what the design to be - the cute detail on the front, sleeveless or not, with zipper or with buttons.



This is the first time I sew a fully lined garment. When I finished the dress I realized that I should have used facings on the back openning. Everytime I finish something I see that I could have done it better. Then I get that right in my next project, but something new comes up.



Instead of making the classic capped sleeves I came up with the idea of these two piece sleeves.



The Buttons. Well, they compliment the dress well, but the downside is that they cost almost as much as the dress fabric itself. I didn't have time to wait for delivery from a webshop and headed to my nearest Hobby Craft store. There wasn't a great choice and I picked these ones. I like them but I think five pounds for 8 buttons is a bit too expensive.



It was fun watching my daughter wearing the dress as she kept playing with the skirt, lifting it and twisting it. Now I plan to sew a black jersey blouse for her to wear underneath.

I made a matching bow hairclip as well


This dress was definitely not a quick sew, but I really enjoy making it.

Thanks for reading and come back again!