The year of the “dress illumination”

Here’s a quick update of the current dress that I’m working on. Once again I spent this week sewing the fabric itself into pleats and then sewing down the pleats. This dress is up to seven yards of fabric. Thank goodness I bought it all on sale! I originally bought three yards of this new fall season faux leather at Joann’s fabrics. Two days later, after I started sewing the pleats, I just knew I was going to need more. I made an additional trip to Joann’s and purchased two more yards. After cutting the dress, I realized I had to match the pleat lines and I ran out of fabric again. I panicked thinking that maybe Joann’s fabrics would not have any left. To my surprise, I purchased the last two yards on the bolt. I know they will reorder some more, but I really wanted to assure that I would have enough material to complete my project. So here it is, half way through.

 

It’s very similar to the previous one. I’m learning so much. It’s amazing. After cutting the skirt, I realized too late that I should have cut the side panels without seams. It would’ve been easer to mach up and more flattering without seams. But, that’s how we learn. I ended up using Butterick 5851 pattern on the top only. The bottom, I just cut it up into what I thought would work best with the top lines. I love this material. I read somewhere earlier that this week that this year is the year of the “dress illumination.” There’s certainly an incredible selection of fabrics out there that have a new shine to it. You can do so much with it. Seeing that I have some material left over, I have every intention of using it. I’m hoping to make a matching purse. Well, I hope you enjoyed the quick update of this week’s project. Certain dresses with this much fabric manipulation are almost impossible to finish in a week. That’s OK. The most important thing is to keep sewing, learning and creating! Have a great weekend everyone. And as always, thank you for sharing in my sewing journey.