Skip to main content

Sewing Machine Dress

It has taken me FOREVER to complete this dress.


Aaaaand the photos I took today are all blown out, edited as best as I could. I think something is wrong with my camera. It looks perfectly exposed on the screen but really bright when I get it onto the computer. Such is life. 

 But I couldn't resist snatching up this print! It's technically a quilting fabric from Joann's... which is also why it wrinkles so damn fast. I love novelty prints and cotton wovens but I think from here on out, I will be designing my own prints for the most part. 

This will allow Manic Pop to be more cohesive as well as me always being able to order more print of a fabric depending upon what I make. I think it will work out in the long run!

Funnily enough, halfway through sewing this I had to take my Huskystar 224 into the shop for repairs. I've had it for about 9 years myself (its about 11 or 12) and never have ever had it serviced. Whoops. The lady at the sewing machine shop didn't seem to think it was all that big of a deal though. 

My machine is a bit of a workhorse and they even told me that I should never oil the one I have myself. So.... done! Tell me not to mess with it, and I won't! I had a damaged spring on the inside of my bobbin case (which is all internal on mine) so no wonder it was making so much noise and scraping against the bobbin plate while sewing. 


This dress is actually the same exact pattern I used for my 1969 Shirtdress.
That's another reason why I thought this took way too long - about 4 weeks from when I was cutting to completion. The only thing I did extra was make armhole facings and attach a band at the bottom. 

I guess it doesn't help that I was fighting with my machine, then finishing it on an entirely different one, plus my hours at work have been a little out of hand. I can be at work anywhere from 8am to about 10pm and with holiday season it could be anywhere up to midnight or in some cases.....2am I have been told. Yikes. 

So I've mostly been sleeping or chilling at home. 


I have been having lots of fun playing with prints. If you have been checking on my Instagram, I just made a psychedelic mushroom pattern repeat which you can buy on Spoonflower.com yourself! I made 3 different colors of it and am soon making a jumper-dress out of it. 

 I *might* do Burda's Retro Dress out of it, and I might just make my own pattern. I haven't decided yet. Here is a mock up with their flat sketch.

And the pattern repeat I designed. 

These mushrooms are hand-drawn then imported into Photoshop at 600 dpi. Sounds excessive, but it worked. I haven't really played with prints since college but I'm really having fun with them again. I used this tutorial to jog my memory of creating a pattern repeat. Like I do with any "recipe" I never follow anything exactly, but I got the results I wanted the way I wanted to personally do it. 


 And there is my repeat in person! Image via Instagram. 

Lots of fun things to do, so little time. We'll see how it all goes. I have lots of exciting things on the backburner. 

See you soon!



Comments

  1. I LOVE the sewing machine print. I, too, am obsessed with cotton quilting prints. They are not only adorable, but also cheap! When you put a lining in them, they are not bad for clothes.

    The psychedelic mushrooms are rather fun, too. I've looked longingly at Spoonflower...someday, I will design my own fabric and make a dress with it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great dress! The sewing machine fabric is cute and I love what you've paired it with.

    I loved sewing with quilting cottons or similar fabrics, but then the wrinkles arrive and I'm not so sure I love them as much any more!

    Your own fabric pattern designs seem like the way to go. So much more original, versatile and interesting. I love the mushroom one :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Latch Hook Rug Update

A little under a month ago I received all of my supplies to take on one of the biggest long-term projects I have ever taken on - a self-designed latch hook rug. I don't know why, but I am clearly nuts. So beginning today I am posting photos each month, (preferably on the 1st of each month) progress of this gigantic shag rug. See how I started it here (scroll down past posting of my $10 dress).  This is a photo of it today:  Yes, I used the candelabra for scale. Haha.   This rug is really soft and is fun to run your fingers through.  It doesn't look like much was accomplished, but though the number of packages we have gone through of pre-cut latch hook rug yarn already I have calculated that  we've used over 2500 strands for this ie.) 8 packages. I also just ordered 10 more packages of lime green since that's what I ran out of first and 6 more packages of straw yellow. There is still quite a bit to go, but you see the blue row squares? Each of th

DIY Trapeze Dress

I'm a pretty big fan of tent dresses (or trapeze dresses - call it what you want). They're simple, easy-to-make and you can have many variations of them. These are a fun style to wear for spring and summer!  See this DIY from a Good Housekeeping Crafts book from 1971 - photos at the end of my own trapeze top from a while ago! (Bear with me on the photos here - this book is quite cumbersome and hard to scan.)  Applique patterns, in case you wanted the dress to look EXACTLY like the photo. (But why?)  How to cut the fabric efficiently. (This is actually pretty important cost-wise for you - especially with something this big.)  Using pattern instructions from my patternmaking book from college, I created this swingy trapeze top a bit ago. I used sweater fabric from a thrift store find for the collar of this top.   I also opened up the back on the pattern to have a diamond shape.   It can easily be belted like in this photo fo

Shingo Sato and the Art of Transformational Reconstruction

So I got really excited on my break at work today when I got an email from Burda about a webinar they're doing on a pattern technique called "Transformational Reconstruction" developed by Japanese designer Shingo Sato. I hadn't even heard of Shingo Sato until today let alone his design technique but oddly, it's sort of the path I'm going down with my designs anyway as seen with the Sunrise Panel dress as well as the Petra Dress and the pattern making involved in those designs. What I did there is perhaps a "light" version of Sato's where the darts and shaping are hidden in the seam lines. If you've been reading this blog long enough, you know that my design aesthetic focuses largely on color blocking, unusual seam lines, and a love of anything psychedelic. Note: All photos stolen from the internet. Sorry! I'm super-excited. Let me know if it's yours and I'll take it down.  Shingo Sato teaching.  More designs using