Monday, June 06, 2011

the dress! as far as I can take it...

Sorry for the silence last week - I was busy with stuff. We trimmed a good 4 feet off the top of our hedges all around the property, and there was a ton of cleanup to do after that - every night, we were out bundling and bagging cedar trimmings!

I was able to take a night and finish the dress for my niece as far as I could take it. I finished the over dress and sleeve edgings. All that was left was the zipper, which I needed her for sizing. We accomplished that last night at a family dinner at my in-laws. I brought the dress down and she tried it on. (By the way, side note to my SIL - telling me your daughter is a size 10? In your dreams!) I'm not blind, and just by eyeballing her, I cut a size sixteen, and STILL had to add some fabric on either side of the zipper! Whatever, It's now done. I sewed the sipper in last night when we got home, and the dress will be delivered to Brampton tonight by my husband (his weekly poker game is at his brother's in Brampton - every Monday night, same group of guys since high school! Seriously!)


Jess now has to do all the finishing. She will sew on the trim all along the front blue edge. She will hem the whole thing. (I cut her some slack and gave her a large roll of Stitch Witchery, so she can IRON the hem). She has to find a petticoat or something to give the skirt some width. She's a little nervous about all this, but as I told her, it's her project, and she has to finish it to put her mark on it.

In any case, I have to say, I am inordinately proud of it. Considering all the shortcuts I took, it really turned out well. I didn't invest a lot of time in it, which was the point - it's not an every day kind of thing - it's going to be worn just a few times, in very specific situations. (A short play at school as part of her exam, and probably a few Halloweens).



That's the point of costumes, I feel. Short periods of wearability = short amount of time worked on it.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Okay, that is AMAZING!!!!

Sel and Poivre said...

Good for you making her contribute to the finished product! In the long run that will be more valuable to her than even the memory or having a wicked awesome costume to wear! Beautiful job!

TracyKM said...

Stunning!
Many people are not aware of the difference between RTW sizes and pattern sizes. I HATE seeing "22" on my pattern, since my RTW clothes are no where near that! And, if she's used to designer type clothes...then yeah, she probably is a size 10, LOL.
This was making me think of how my aunt sewed my grade 8 band skirt. Not a difficult pattern, but very grateful for having her and I wish I had gotten more knowledge from her on spinning, dyeing, and sewing before she passed WAY too young last year!

Brendaknits said...

Inordinately proud you should be. IT is great! Those pattern sizes disappoint me too. Why not feel-good sizing just like RTW?

katrynka said...

Lovely!! Quite a few years ago I made a kimono for my foster daughter to wear to Comicon. She wore that thing to death! Quite a few costume uses, then finally as a robe until it fell apart. It was worth the miles of fabric and sewing!!

Saren Johnson said...

You are the bestest, most amazing Aunt ever!

Will you adpot me?

deirdre said...

You are a saint - a talented (just look at that!), practical (having her finish it), generous saint...

Acorn to Oak said...

Your niece is so lucky to have such a terrific and talented aunt! I'm amazed at how quickly you whipped that dress out! Don't you hate pattern sizing?! I just don't get why it has to be soooo different from store bought clothing. It makes it all so confusing. It's a good thing you're so experienced with pattern sizing that you knew to make a different size. I'm glad it all worked out. I'm impressed how you're having her do the finishing too. That's really great! :-)

Carol said...

That is truly impressive! Niece better show her appreciation somehow, cause holy crap!

Knit and Purl Mama said...

Wow. That dress is gorgeous. Amazing job so far. What is she using the costume for?