I'm really really excited about this one because I have finally got myself some really exciting fabric. That I didn't have explaining therapy for about this one. I just love it so a couple of days ago. I headed over to ikea and I knew that they had a bunch of kind of you knows just um fabric, That you can measure and then cut and buy yourself and I know that they have this undyed cotton for like two euros per meter.
So that is incredible so I wanted to get some of that for mock-ups and then I saw this stuff this absolutely gorgeous floral fabric with butterflies and birds and flowers and just oh it is so beautiful. So this fabric is called philodendron it is swollen ikea you can buy it there and I just had to pick it up. So I do have to say this is I'm pretty sure this is meant for upholstery it is upholstery weight. It's pretty heavy it's pretty thick but I did wash it with some fabric softener. It's a little bit better now and honestly, it's so pretty.
That I don't really mind that the fabric is maybe not meant for clothing. I think it'll be fine and I think actually the weight and thickness of the fabric will make it a little bit better to be worn in autumn. So that I can actually wear this dress. So yes I'm gonna make a dress out of this I already gave that away but probably isn't very surprising and I have chosen this pattern for that. That I still had it is the Butterick b65 and it is marked as an easy pattern it is one by patterns by Gertie and it's just a pretty classic kind of 1950s style dress. I do want to make the sleeves a little bit longer because you guys know I love my half-length sleeves and I think those are just perfect for kind of year-round wear.
So I'm going to alter it a little bit but I hope that for everything else. I can just use this pattern looks very simple I already cut out my pattern pieces and I hope I actually do have the right size. This time I measured my actual body measurements and I measured the measurements of the garments and this should leave me with a pretty snug fit with a little bit of ease so fingers crossed and if I mess it up then I can always just go back to ikea and get more of this fabric. So yes the first step is to transfer my pattern onto this fabric and then we can get started I have cut out all my pattern pieces.
This is the first time I'm working with a pattern that actually has a direction and um can be matched up. So I struggle enough with making sure it's all cutting in the right direction. So I didn't even attempt to pattern match because I have no idea how that's done I would have to learn how to do that I guess so next project maybe but for now I'm just happy. That I got this to all line up correctly so the next step is to get my interfacing on the bodice pieces. I have my front here and these are the back pieces and I'm gonna get my interfacing ironed on the pattern says to go for sew-on interfacing but I just think this iron-on will be sufficient. So I'm just gonna go with that and then start sewing the top together it's a pretty straightforward pattern. Actually, I just do the darts and then do the lining get those together, and then it's also sleeved already so easy enough to do so all right. I tried on the bodice and the dress is running a bit tight I don't understand the sizing on these I just don't but luckily at this point.
I can still very easily go back and add a bit of room. So I think I'm gonna start by just reducing the seam allowance on the side seams a bit and see if that's enough okay. I moved both the darts and the side seams so it is quite a bit bigger. Now I may actually have overdone it a little bit I took out about half of the darts and about half the side seams as well but I hope that any excess. I have now can be compensated for here. When I attach the zipper in the back so I'm just gonna make sure that all the excess fabric sticks out in the back. When I attach it to the skirt but I do feel like this will fit me a lot better and I'm glad I did it now because now I need to do the lining. So I'm going to make the exact same top again I hope I get the sizes right. So that they actually fit and are the same size. I'm going to do the exact same thing. It's going to be the lining and then I will attach the bodice to the lining do it's day two the bodice is nearly finished. I tried it yesterday and it did turn out a little bit on the larger side but too big is better than too small.
So I will see if I can fix that later on down the line if it's necessary once I attach the skirt but it is looking pretty good something else that happened is when I was doing the understitching. I forgot to pull out the corner where there's a little v shape on the edge let's see. If I can show you that on the pattern the front has a little v-shape on it, I lost that in my understitching. So it's more of a sweetheart neckline now but I actually don't mind. That I actually think I like this more because I wasn't a huge fan of that little bee. So I'm just gonna leave that so the next step is to set in my sleeves I did already sew those up and hem them dude say haven't wanted to sleeve anyways they are all finished. So I just need to set those in and then I can work on the skirt it seems like a pretty quick project.
If I am indeed almost done like it seems that I am so yeah let's just keep going sleeve time. It's a new day I am working on the skirt I am turning. This into this huge long panel that'll then be pleated but I've run into a problem with my pockets because I have attached the two side seams where the pocket sits like that and it's looking pretty good I must say pocket's great but I noticed that for some reason my seams um where the pocket is attached are on the visible side and they're not inside the skirt and somehow I can't imagine that.
That is what's supposed to happen so I'm confused. I'm gonna have to unpick this and figure out how to do this so that it doesn't sit like that, I think I've got it that was me thinking wow um I think I've got it. I think I was supposed to just stitch the pocket on like this and not inside out. So I need to pick it apart and reattach it like that I think that would be the solution. I hope let's try that again I fixed the pockets on both sides and now I have this super white tube that is going to be my skirt. So I'm just going to do my gathers now I have the markings on the inside here which should make it a bit easier but I've never done gathers all around let's put it that way I've only done a little like one individual gather on each side but we'll see how this goes and that should put me very close to the end because after that it's only setting in the zipper and attaching the top to the skirt all right I almost broke my brain trying to figure out.
These pleats I must say I'm not a huge fan of this pattern the instructions are very confusing on several points. That doesn't have to be that confusing I feel but I managed to do something that looks decent and I attached the skirt to the bodice also in away. That is somewhat decent I did stitch over the basting stitches here but I think I'll just remove those uh I'm gonna stop here for today because it's a lot and I'm getting really tired and I start making mistakes. When I'm tired I also cut a hole into the skirt somewhere in these pleats. I'll have to mend but hopefully, I will get it done tomorrow all I need to do now is to attach the lining on the inside and then the zipper and then do the hemming on the bottom and that should be the dress done.
I do have to say it's a pain to make I'm not enjoying this project as much as I'd hoped. I think it's because of the very confusing pattern but it is turning out really nice and it has pockets. I know you guys love it so yes I will see you again tomorrow the dress is finished. I have very mixed feelings about this one it's not perfect it's far from perfect in fact the shoulder bits are very wide. They are slipping off my shoulders front and back the darts. That I made bigger, strangely enough, fit onto the skirt. I didn't make bigger perfectly I feel like just everything that is kind of wrong with this dress at the moment is because of the pattern and not because of mistakes.
That I have made I think I'm pretty sure because usually, I can identify what I did wrong pretty well but I feel like in this case, the pattern is just a little bit weird because yeah if I had made the bodice the way it was supposed to be it would have been too small for the skirt and I made it a bit bigger. Now and it is a little bit big on me it has a bit of ease. I put a belt on it to cinch a little bit you can see it's kind of gathering up here. So it could have been a bit tighter but now I do have a bit of room for a food baby. So I'm not too bothered about that and I do actually like it. When the belt breaks the pattern a bit also the sleeves are a bit weird. They bunch up in this strange way. Which I don't feel you know should be necessary that might be my problem though but usually, my sleeves don't do that, Um so I'm not exactly sure what went wrong there it might also have to do with my fabric choice a little bit. Because this fabric is just not meant for dresses and I do feel like the skirt is a little bit short I would have liked.
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