Reaping What I Have Sewn

Here is the culprit! Besides loving purple and cats and chocolate (as any reader to this blog can attest), I also love hats. Early this summer, my friend Ruth and I went to the Hattery which has more hats than I do! I fell in love with this lovely blue hat but I had absolutely nothing to wear which would go with it.

I have a dress which I have worn for over 10 years -- if you have ever seen me when I am traveling I was probably wearing this dress. I can throw it in a suitcase and take it out and I am good to go. The size is a free size. The ties in the back make it so that it is one size fits all. Very comfortable. I have worn it so much that the seams were beginning to shred and you can only fix a shred so many times : ) So BTEG helped me make a pattern from the pieces parts of the old dress. See - Evil Geniuses really come in handy!

My other friend and Barb helped me out by accompanying me to the fabric store and helping me decide which material would suit my need. I wanted something which was not polyester -- our church is not airconditioned and when I wear polyester I feel like I am wrapped in Saran Wrap. This material fit the bill perfectly and so began my sewing project.

Cutting out the pattern pieces was no problem. The challenge was in the sewing. The last time I sewed a dress from a pattern was in the mid 70's. My sister-in-law Marty did quite a bit of sewing and she helped me tremendously as I struggled with carbon seam lines and darts. We decided on a Friday to sew new Easter dresses for ourselves and we did by that Sunday! The other challenge is that my very ancient sewing machine has a tension setting that sometimes works and sometimes not. This is my third used-passed-down-machine and I have been thrilled that it actually has a backstitch : ) Since all I basically used the machine for was mending (and fixing my shredding seams), it really never bothered me.

As you can see, I did manage to sew my way clear to a new dress. I really enjoyed making this and was quite impressed with myself : ) BTEG did an excellent job of describing how to follow her handwritten pattern. She also taught me how to make a French seam.

I enjoyed myself so much that I went on to make 2 more dresses! And now....maybe a new machine so that I'll get the tension right????