dress Archives • Page 3 of 3 • Jessica Smith Creates

August 4, 2013

T Minus One Year

In one year I’ll have a bachelor’s degree, and hopefully some sort of employment.

I’ll have had this blog for a year and four months or so.

I’ll also be going to Comic Con.

Which was the main inspiration for starting this blog in the first place.

I wanted to let you know what is to come in the next year, in a more updated and compact list than I have before.

Costuming:

TARDIS costume – Doctor Who

corded petticoat

bum roll

console skirt

bustled overskirt

underbust corset

high necked sleeveless shirt

sleeveless shrug with dangling pearl “sleeves”

time rotor necklace

hair embellishment of some sort

television monitor purse (which will attach to the corset

spats for my t-straps

Belle – Once Upon A Time

Lace and knit skater dress

embellishment necklace

Queen Susan – Narnia: Prince Caspian

white underdress

blue overdress

potentially a quiver – like object

Claudia – Warehouse 13

finishing off the vest – lining and a new zipper

necklace of some sort

Steampunk base costume – potentially for Halloween. Or life in general.

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corset waist skirt

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Short sleeved high necked button down shirt – emerald green? I like this simple version of the drawing

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short corded petticoat

Sewing:

UFO #2 – Velvet and Lace Vintage Dress

Kaylee inspired dress – Firefly

Ballroom dancing gown

Refashioned Ready To Wears (so I’m willing to be ready to wear them.)

Knitting/Crochet:

Lacy slouchy hats

Thick shawl

Some necklace making, some quote illustrations, some cards, some leatherwork.

July 24, 2013August 19, 2018

No one decides my fate

But me.

So I had my skirt.

I then thought about a bodice.

First, though, I decided I would make one of those bodice slopers that I’ve heard so much about.

Burdastyle.com has a nice tutorial on how to make one to your measurements here. I used that one successfully, with the results shown above, in my lovely yellow polyester doubleknit. I didn’t add any seam allowance to my pattern pieces, because I forgot, but also so I could see how close fitting the bodice really was. As far as I can tell it fits quite nicely around my chest, which is the major purpose of the current experiment. I didn’t sew up the underarm seam or the corresponding shoulder seam. If I had I never would have gotten the blasted thing on to check out the fit.

The bodice needed to be changed over to a sweetheart neckline anyway, which disregards the need for the shoulder seam, and the underarm seam seems to fit close enough anyway, and I can always take it in later if its too much, or add in something if it doesn’t.

So I made up my new pattern, and cut out the pieces, adding a little length to it, and put it together.

I hand picked a zipper in, which went pretty well, I think, for my second hand picked zipper.

Then the handsewing the skirt into the bodice. Oh how I miss my sewing machine. If only the serger had a larger neck…

And my completed dress!

Because this was meant to be a wearable muslin, I knew it wouldn’t be perfect, but I had fun learning about it.

I’m planning on adding a strip of tan fabric to the bottom of the skirt, to lengthen it, but because its 120 inches around the bottom, I’m going to need to do some planning. Which also means some procrastinating. In my real version of the dress the skirt won’t be a full circle skirt, and will be longer anyway, so there will definitely be changes there.

There is also a big fold in the back of the bodice when I stand up straight, which I’ll be needing to understand and fix for the future. It’s not just because the back isn’t straight in the pictures, I promise. I’m also planning to move the waistband of the skirt up an inch in future versions. It needed to be lower for modesty for this one, but with a longer skirt, I’d like a higher waist point.

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And I even know how I can wear this dress! From season 2 episode 11 of Once Upon a Time. Technically she’s wearing a long sleeved sheer shirt under the jacket, but I’ve got to have some creative liberties with my subtle cosplaying!

July 20, 2013August 19, 2018

A chipped cup.

There’s no way to have a serger and not test it out with some nice fabric! On a lot of nice fabric!

Since the fabric I happened to have on hand already was woven and not at all stretchy, I wanted to buy some knits, so I could test it on some fabric that needs some of the stretch that a serger gives.

I was going for cheap knits, at first, so I bought remnants of some polyester double knit. The tan, blue, and yellow ones are all pretty scratchy, but I bought them mostly for practice, and to use as muslins for heavier knit projects. The gold dotted one is the one I really wanted. It’s a gorgeous fall gold, and if I wanted to be poetical I would say it reminds me of New England in autumn.

The minute the auction closed on my serger I thought that maybe this machine could give me a chance to try out some ideas for my Belle outfit. I’ve not had much luck with my regular sewing machine with stretchy fabrics, and though I’m working to change that the serger will overall come in handy.

For my real dress, I want a sweetheart necked bodice with a lace overlay, some sleeves, and a skater (circle) skirt.

The lace top to the real bodice is something I am planning to figure out another time, potentially with a coupon and really cheap stretch lace. I’ll be willing to shell out a little more money for better lace once I know how it will fit together.

But for now, I’d like to work on the skirt, see how and where I’d like it to fit, and then the bodice in turn, so that I know how I’d like to make the real dress.

Whenever I actually get around to that.

I started out with this fabric, which I knew I wanted as a skirt anyway, and I definitely wanted to try out a full circle skirt.

So I had folded a piece into a small square, with two folds, and cut out the waist. I then trimmed the hemline, knowing that I probably wouldn’t actually hem it. It is a lovely knit, but I knew that the skirt would already be a bit short on me. When possible, I prefer to give myself a higher waisted skirt. My smallest point around my midsection is pretty high up (as is my natural waist though that’s not quite as high), and I like to emphasize that when I can, which then requires longer skirts.

Then a waistband went on, though I didn’t quite plan it well enough and it came up short in the back. It was really at this point where I decided to think about putting on a bodice. I’m more willing to add extra work to my plate than come up with a simple quick fix for a skirt waistband.

I’ll talk about the bodice in my next post on this project!