My First Made-For-Me: Rose Garden Dress

I have made many dresses for my Little Terror and dollies before, but never contemplated to make a dress for myself as I reckoned that women dresses can be really cheap on sale and a woman’s figure can be more demanding to sew for compared to little humans/dolls.  However I was tempted to try making my first Made-For-Me when I saw this empire-waist dress pattern in a Japanese magazine. 

 

There are 2 ties/sash in front just beside the wrap of the dress that you can pull back, tie a bow and cinch just below your bosoms to create an empire waist.

 

      (Noticed that I switched my shoes in this picture? )

 

I shall present the specs of this dress using  ‘The Sew Weekly’s Contributor’ style :)

 

The Facts

Fabric	:	2.5 yards Thailand cotton from Malaysian local fabric chain Kamdar: RM17/USD5.70 1 yard each of the contrast fabric,Thailand cotton as well, RM13.60/USD4.50 (the said fabrics were on 50% off sale) Total Cost: ~RM30.60/USD10.20
Pattern	:	Cotton Friend Summer 2011 Vol. 39

Fabric from Left to Right: The lighter fabric has circles of rose wreaths motifs, the darker contrast fabric has rose bushes, and the light green fabric has vines of roses cascading down.  That’s why I call this ‘The Rose Garden Dress’

 

So far I have only worked with cottons so I naturally chose to work with cotton for this dress, but I think the dress, especially the sleeves and the skirt would drape better if I chose a more drape-y fabric.  Can anyone advise on types of drape-y fabric to use which is not too tough to sew?

 

Time to complete: Spent average 2 hours each over 4 workdays after 9pm (after Little Terror has gone to sleep)

First worn: On my car porch to model for all of you, 23 July 2011

Wear again?: Not sure if I will step out beyond my car porch in this as it's too gaudy, too hippie looking, too home-made?  My husband’s reaction when he first saw the dress was: “Is this a maternity dress?’ and ‘Are those sleeves meant to be that big?”.  When I gave him the eye he said, ‘Well at least it looks like the dress in the picture of the book’.   But I do admit I am not so mad about the billowy sleeves. But I do like how the fabrics matching turned out. If only I have the courage to wear this out of the house!

 

On another note, Little Terror was doing this yesterday.  I was amazed when I saw her laid out her blanket on the sofa and held a measuring cup by the handle to do this.  I did not do this act during the weekend but somehow she remembered. Can you guess what she was doing? No, not ironing clothes. 

 

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