My New Dressform!

Well, I finally got a dressform! I'm so excited. It just arrived today so I haven't had too much time to play with it. I still need to do some more adjustments to it. As you can see, my daughters wasted no time playing Project Runway with my dressform.

The dressform is a Dritz My Double Deluxe that I ordered from Joann.com. They shipped my dressform super fast! I ordered my dressform with standard shipping on Sunday and it got here today, Wednesday! They had a sale where all the Dritz dressforms were $129.99, so I jumped on the opportunity and got the nicest one they had. The dressform is also able to be set up off-center on the pole so that you can drape pants.

It will be so nice to just put the outfit on the dressform instead of having to try it on several million times while still sewing the outfit. Also, I won't have to bug my husband anymore to help with fittings. Not that he minds, but still, I'd like not to have to interrupt him constantly with fitting help. The dressform also makes a nice place to store the garment I'm currently working on. I'm also looking forward to being able to do some tissue-fitting. I have very limited sewing time, so I don't normally do muslins. Now if it's for a special outfit, then yeah, I'll do a muslin.

I tried the duct tape double thing, but really hated it. My husband wrapped me up in duct tape and I hated every minute of it. It smelled really weird and I hated the feeling of being trapped in tape. Cutting me out of the form was also nerve-wracking. My daughters, however, loved the process and thought it was the funniest thing they've seen. I figured I'd try it though, after all, if it fails (which it did) then at least I have a funny story to tell. Non-sewers especially find the story extremely weird. I didn't care much for the look of the form after it was done. The top especially was inaccurate. That could just be due to us not doing it right. Even so, I don't want to re-tape myself whenever my weight changes. I'm currently dropping weight, so I would have to redo the double every so often. Blech! No thanks!

I'm really anxious to use my dressform for the first time. Now I just gotta finish up my daughters' dresses so I can start tracing my pattern. I plan on doing this dress:
I'll be doing the sleeveless version with the long scarf. I'm doing it in a black/white/red fabric I got from G Street Fabrics. The scarf will be red. I really should post pictures of the fabric I suppose. It's getting chaotic here now with the girls, so perhaps later I'll post fabric pictures.

It's raining here. I love rain! Perfect sewing weather. Now to just find some sewing time....

Friend's Dress a Success!

Well, that pose says it all! My friend Janine's dress was a success! I still can't believe I sewed it. I'm actually kinda numb from shock. I should have been jumping up and down for joy, but I would just stare dumbly at the dress and ask myself "I made that?" A lot of praying was involved in making this dress, so I certainly won't steal the credit here. Thank you, God! This picture of Janine is just too cute! Such a cute sassy look! And she looks absolutely beautiful in her dress.

This project was intimidating, but I learned so much from it. I got some experience working with chiffon, which I had never used before. I also got the chance to sew for someone else who has entirely different fitting issues from myself. Since I was panicking so much the whole time, I'm also not nearly as nervous anymore sewing dresses for myself. I've gained so much confidence from this project. Possibly more than I need considering I'm planning a majorly challenging project for Christmas. It's so much scarier to sew for someone else because you don't want them to be upset if things go wrong. Which, let's face it, they often do! Especially if I'm the one sewing. I know the disappointment I feel when my outfit is ruined, so I wouldn't want to do that to someone else, especially a great friend. Also, this dress was for a wedding and not just any ole wedding, but her son's wedding! Yikes! So I'm extremely grateful that things turned out great and Janine was happy.

At the wedding someone saw Janine in her dress and asked "So, you decided not to go with the dress your friend made?" To which Janine told her that she was wearing the dress I made. Needless to say, the lady was truly shocked I sewed that. So it was a great feeling.

It meant a lot to me to do this for Janine. She's done so much for me and probably doesn't even realize it, so I wanted to give something back.