This past Spring a friend from school emailed me and asked I could alter a dress. Her sister was getting married and as the matron of honor, they wanted her dress to be different than the bridesmaids. I met with my friend's sister and discussed the redesign of the dress from a bridesmaid dress. Meanwhile, my friend was living in Tennessee so we couldn't exactly meet for a fitting. Luckily, we had taken a draping class together and she still had her sloper patterns.
This is the bridesmaid dress, the lack of sleeves and short length made it impossible for Kamee to wear her garments.
We decided to rebuild the top with a champagne lining in the yoke and sleeve. I used Kamee's slopers from class and patterned a new top for the dress. Kamee's sister wanted the dress to have a chiffon skirt and a chiffon belt.
I cut the dress at the seams and pieced some together to cut out the pattern pieces.
After I finished off the neckline and the sleeves it looked much more "finished."
But, it still wasn't done.
I was fairly happy with how it turned out. Kamee told me that her zipper broke right before the wedding. Invisible zippers are so unreliable.
I made a dress for myself, surprise surprise! A local fabric store, A Fashionable Stitch, had closed before I took the time to visit. When the owner announced that the online store was closing as well I jumped at the chance to buy some beautiful fabric.
I'm usually wary about buying fabric online but this was better than I imagined! This cotton shirting has a gorgeous sheen and a beautiful, saturated color. I decided to make a classic shirt dress with short sleeves.
I have a stash of vintage patterns, including several shirtdress patterns. I swapped out the convertible collar for a collar with a stand. I was mostly concerned about the shoulder slope and sleeve placement. The slopers I made in draping class have gone missing; I really wish I still had them! I adapted a vintage pattern and made a simple mock up before cutting into my beautiful fabric.
I realized that I didn't take any pictures of the finished dress. I wore it on our anniversary date and I wear it to church. I love that it has pockets and the color is wonderful.
Not all of the projects involve a sewing machine. We have a pair of orange loveseats we inherited from my Grandparents. Over the 30 or so years our loveseats have been around, the legs have gotten trashed. Originally they had wooden legs and casters. The once round casters ended up like this:
The loveseats also had a skirt around the bottom that I thought looked dated.
(Ignore the cute kids, focus on the ratty skirt.)
We decided to staple the skirt to give the bottom of the loveseats a clean look. James did a majority of the stapling with his staple gun and compressor.
I'm just kidding, he did most of the work period. I was merely an assistant.
We chose metallic feet at Home Depot, This solved another minor issue, the loveseats were fairly low to the ground.
Magnus wanted to help too!
I am really happy with the final result! I think they look cleaner and slightly sleeker.
