Adventures in Fashion: Makin' a Thing

None of this is sewn together yet.  It's just pinned, but you can see what the Hell it's going to be. 

The idea is that I'll wear it with a white or black top of... some kind.  Starts under the boob and then goes down.  That's it.  That's all it's gonna be.

Dress Number Two!

For the first dress, I was learning how to properly use a pattern (and making shit up on the fly anyway)...  
So, for the second dress, it was all about altering a known pattern into a slightly different dress, and also using a different kind of fabric. 

The basic shape of the neckline started the same as the first dress, for example: 

Then, I wanted to see if I could add a cowl-neck.  I made up how I was going to do it, so... THAT was interesting:

 Instead of long sleeves in three pieces, this has capped sleeves:

Finally, I think the biggest change to the design was the bottom.  I cut it a little higher on the sides, and let it drop to a point a little lower: 

I'm still working on the way the stitches should look.  I'll admit, Mom helped me a lot with the machine.  

  
After many days of working a bit, stopping, questioning everything in my life, and then starting again, this is the final product: 

EDIT: The cowl neck is actually much cleaner looking now than it is in these photos. 

If I ever get around to doing a third dress, it will be time to learn how to make a pattern.  
In fact, I don't think I'd start with a dress there.  

That seems...  No.  

I'll make something small so that I can figure out how to design and cut flat pieces to build a three dimensional, wearable object. 

That might not be for a while though.  This coming semester is over filled with not-so-simple classes, and one class too many.  

Also, I might be moving yet again, which would be awesome.  It would also take up A LOT of time.  Time is a thing I will not have this semester.  

However, the hope is that in a better, safer environment, I'll get more work done more often.  

Fingers crossed!  

Lastly, a reminder that the Etsy site is up!

Also, the Deddrie site is... up?  But there is nothing currently there.  
We (Rob) are figuring it out.  We still have everything saved, so no worries there.  I'll keep you all posted. 

Meanwhile, my portfolio site IS up and running at RowynGolde.com. 

Drawings and commission info is not yet up, but prints and commissions are available.  That will be more apparent soon.  

For now, you can email me at deddrie@gmail.com for a specific question or commission. 

Adventures in Dressmaking!

I found a pattern and bought it on a whim.  It looked simple enough and I'd never used a pattern before, so it was exciting.  Then I scared myself into thinking I'd just screw it up and never even tried. 

 I was going to do this one, with a cowl:  

 ...

Like a year or something later?  More than that?  

Couple of years later, I bought fabric for this pattern.  My buddy Dani helped me pick out this fabric: 

 Isn't it cute?  I don't really own a lot of cute things.  I mean, yeah, it's still skulls but...  CUTE!  YAY! 


 Now, the pattern called for stretchy fabric and this was not, but I didn't want a zipper up my armpit either, so I decided to do panels on both sides of stretchy stuff.  

You know what I own even less of than cute clothes?  Pink. 

 Seriously.  Everything I owned before was red, black or brown.  Sometimes there were blue things.  Mostly black. 


I am le goth kid.  

And so it began!  I went to my mother for assistance, realizing that she had about as much experience using a pattern as I had.  She had done it once in the sixties and her story didn't exactly have a happy ending.  


Pinning up the fabric to then cut out the shapes: 

There was this tone of "Is this going to work?" throughout the process. 

 Of course, there were some mishaps.  One example being when we attached both panels to what would become the same side, instead of one on each: 

 Slowly, it began to become a thing: 

Thiiing: 

The cat was entirely unhelpful.  Please note that the rest of the table was clear at that point.  She managed to sit on ALL the dress fabrics.  

"I shall sit RIGHT ON ALL THE THINGS"
(The darker fabric in front of her is what we used for the second dress.) 



It fit!  We just needed the final touches aaand: 

BOOM BABY!  

The finished dress!  The pink, as stated, is stretchy.  The rest is not.  That means it's comfy enough when bending the elbows and (while it doesn't look it on the hanger) it's really form fitting.  The bottom of it wound up pleated just so it could be more fit to my body after the fact, so that's neat.  

WOOT.  I DID A THING.

Well,  WE did a thing.  My mother did a lot of the actual machine work because pushing pedals with my feet to make a loud thing go fast scares me whether it's a sewing machine or a car.  

I need to work on that.

But WOO a dress!

Adventures in Fabric: Tops Down!

Continued from last time, I'll start off with a fun fact. 

Want to spruce up an old tank top?  Cut out the crotch of a new pair of tights or slice off each leg to make sleeves:

Fishnet:

 Stripes:

 You can even cut thumb holes...

Next up, a friend of mine gave me a T-shirt that is wonderful but was huge on my teeny tiny body: 

 It still needs to be hemmed and cleaned up, but this the dress I've made from it so far: 

Not bad for not knowing what the Hell I'm doing, right?  

...Right?

HOKAY.  Last on this list today is the awful, too big turtle neck I never wear: 

Becoming a warm cut-out T:

This was taken before the last bit of cleaning up and sewing around the chest holes, but you get the idea. 

Sleeve detail: 

Weeeee!

EDIT:  Why haven't I posted updated pictures of these?  ...  Still not doing so.  
...
Oh well.