21st May 2010: Finished! My Grandma dropped the dress off for me today with all the sewing complete. I still wasn't quite happy with how the top layer hanged around my chest so I took it in at the sides a bit until it looked better. It was very awkward to do and it isn't a tidy job... but not very noticeable I hope. I then sewed the snap fastener to the halter neck.
I'm going to do a make-up test tomorrow with the contacts and false eyelashes and then get some photos taken in the full outfit with wig and shoes.
21st May 2010: Coming together Round my Grandma's again this evening for more progress on the dress. Over the last week she cut out the chiffon layer for me and starting tacking the dress together and adding the ribbon to the neckline and the zip ect.
I tried it on and although the bottom half was a good fit the top was very loose (stupid size 12 pattern you lie!)So that had to be taken in quite a lot. The chiffon overlay was also too loose, said I wanted it slightly bigger than the lower layer so it floats over it but think I judged that bad. After sticking a load of pins in to get the top half fitting better the dress came off again and Grandma started un-stitching and re-sewing parts which took a good hour.
After the adjustments were made I tried the dress on again and the top half fits loads better. The chiffon layer could do with being slightly more fitted but it looks better than it did and I don't want to make a fuss ^^' We worked out where the hem of the dress will be and that was pinned into place.
It was getting late so we left it there. Grandma will sew the hem for me tommorow, attach a hook and eye above the top of the zip and if she get's time overlock the seams before dropping it off to me when I finish work. I will then just have to get the snap fastner sorted on the halter neck.
7th May 2010: First part of dress complete Today I finally started work on the dress with my Grandma helping me along the way. First we sorted the pattern pieces out, pinned them to the fabric and worked out where to cut for the size we were aiming for. For this pattern I'm a US size 12 0_o My UK sizing is a 8-10 which is around a size 6 in the US so dunno how I managed a size 12 for this! We thought it was wrong but that's the size I needed according to my measurements apparently.
Anyway. After cutting the fabric I was shown how to put tacks in for the darts and cut out some triangle markers at the sides (think they were just to help you line up the edges of the dress... I forgot ^^').
Then it was to the sewing machine! I didn't have any experience with one so Grandma started me off and sewed the curved edges and then let me do the straight lines. I was holding the material back a bit and so some of the stitching was too close together oopps but I'm learning!
That was all for today. Grandma's going to overlock the seams for me and then when I next see her we'll work on the chiffon overlay and the neckline before putting it all together with the zip and raising the hem etc.