it was a day of firsts

A few weeks back I went to visit my family and see the first of my childhood friends get married (She looked gorgeous!). I'm still finding it hard to fathom that we are actually adults now, and that our 10 year high school reunion is only a year and a half away.

It was my first time wearing heels much higher than 1 inch. Technically they were wedges but still, they count in my book.

Ah yes, and it was my first time wearing a dress since 5th grade. My friends didn't even recognize me when I came running up to them outside the church.

That dress was the first dress I have made in my life. I used simplicity 2406 and made the closed back version of it sans pockets. When this pattern came out, I knew I had to have it if only for the sleeves.

 The fabric I used was a cotton/poly stretch twill that I picked up from Joann's, sure I didn't have the greatest selection to choose from but at least I could touch and see the actual fabric. I personally have bad luck when it comes to online fabric shopping, I chalk it up to lack of fabric buying experience which I vow to work on.

 Back- Take 1

 

 

 I was slightly worried about under taking this project for two reasons. One, I'm really not a dress person and I find it really hard to visualize things like this on myself. Two, I doubted my ability to actually create something nice enough for such a special occasion.

I went ahead and checked out all the reviews on pattern review. The one thing that every one seemed to mention were the directions for making the sleeves. Taking that information, I sat down one night and read the sleeve directions about 10 times, made my muslin and jotted down notes to help myself out along the way.
Once I figured out the sleeves, everything else just came together.

Well, almost everything, I didn't mention that this was my first time inserting an invisible zipper. I tried to put it in by machine three times, but ended up with puckers every time. So I did what anybody would do, popped on Bright Star (followed by Zombieland) and hand stitched the 16 inch zipper into my dress.

Back- Take two,  the back facing was tacked down after this was shot

I am quite happy to say that the dress held up well, even with my 3, possibly 4 hours on the dance floor.

Front- I still need to work on standing like a lady

In action!

So yes, that is my first ever foray into dressmaking and it turned out well in my opinion. I will probably never make this dress again, but I would love to make a tunic length top from it at some point.

That is it for now, hopefully I'll be posting a smidge more often, but I make no promises.