This blog post is aptly named for my finished current dress project. Let me tell you a little more about how I got the fabric, the sewing process, and the relief I’m feeling now that it's done.
It was love at first sight when I found this bird fabric at Joann’s back in May. My local Joann’s only had a one yard available at the time, so I went online and purchased through Joann.com and unfortunately during my transaction, the fabric sold out. I frantically called Joann’s customer service department and waited on hold for over 30 minutes. The customer service rep told me that the fabric has been selling out, and that she could offer me a couple of fat quarters at the time. I was bummed, so I asked if there was a possibility that it would be repurchased soon. The rep told me it would be in 2-4 weeks. I sighed, and relented that I would check the website again when I could. Fast forward two weeks later, Joann’s website restocked the beautiful bird fabric and I purchased 4 yards to make a pretty dress for myself.
After a week of telling friends and family about my recent fabric purchase, my package arrived. I was not happy at all. First, Joanns sent me only 3 yards. Second, two of the three yards were separated. Thankfully, Joanns did not charge me for 4 yards, so that was nice but I was still mad. I washed and dried the fabric so it was ready for its transformation. Then librarian job interviews happened and I lost touch with sewing for a couple of months. During this time, my Two of Hearts dress also sat unfinished in my sewing room. The bird fabric lay on the bed, while I tried to think of thread and zipper choices. Now, in the past two weeks I have finally began working on the dress.
I laided out my self drafted skirt pattern, and my Butterick b5748 bodice pattern on the varying pieces of fabric and discovered that I could fit all the pieces easily. This has been a new realization because I am such a beginner level sewer, I didn’t think I could make a dress out of 3 yards and not mess up. But there in the scattered pieces of the bird fabric I could make a dress if I cut carefully and paid attention to the number of pieces needed. I cut out all the pattern pieces, ironed and smoothed out any wrinkling, and I began the crazy journey of sewing them all together.
The first issue that happened was that I noticed I cut my back skirt pieces an inch shorter than the front skirt piece. This means I had to go back and recut or hem the skirt so that it evened out. I choose the cutting route. Next, I sewed the bodice pieces together and I used scrap fabric from one my first dresses I made. The scrap fabric is a grey fabric with ditsy white floral. I used that fabric for the lining. I sewed the bodice together and let the project sit for a couple days. I returned to it by the end of last week, in which I sewed the skirt and pockets together. I had some friends over for Magic the Gathering and drinks and I got to show a friend my progress. The bird dress sat again until last Saturday, when I began to sew the bodice to the skirt. Oh boy. I like to pin perpendicularly to the fabric and sewing machine so I keep the pins in while I sew. I then remove the pins afterward and inspect my stitches. Due to the amount of fabric and pins, my sewing machine tried to eat something. It made crazy grinding sounds. Ray came rushing into the sewing room to ask what was happening. I thought I had broken my machine. I stopped, lifted the presser foot looked around. I rethreaded my bobbin and needle. I turned on my machine and tried again. The needle could not keep the thread in it. I rethreaded again. Finally, it worked and was sewing okay. I continued sewing the bodice and the skirt together.
Today, while sewing the zipper, the back seam, and the hem I had difficulty again. The problem arose when I installed the zipper. I am not a great zipper sewer. I should probably enroll in some kind of zipper boot camp, because it takes me forever to sew them and just knowing that the process is coming up psyches me out. Well, determined to sew the zipper and finish the project, I started sewing the zipper into the dress. When I got to the bottom of the zipper, I zipped it up and pivoted. Nothing. I had to take the whole dress out from under the presser foot and rethread. I sewed on a scrap piece of fabric and saw it was fine. I then sewed again. I finished installing the zipper and turned to the back seam. I took my time pinning the back seams and sewing them. After, I went to the inside of the dress and sewed what I call the “dress guts” together. These are the the ends of the skirt and the bodice. I don’t have a serger/overlocker machine yet, so I use a zig zag stitch to finish off the ends. I then began to roll the hem to sew and finish the dress. I pinned the rolled hem in place and began to sew. Everything was fine until at the last foot of the hem, I ran out of bobbin thread. I stopped, loaded my bobbin briefly, and sewed again. Then at the last inch I ran out of bobbin thread again. I quickly loaded my bobbin to finish. And BAM, the bird dress is done! UGH. Why was it so hard? I think it’s just me and my mediocre sewing skills. I need some extra tips.
Anyway, I am so happy I am done. This is my thirteenth dress I’ve finished this year. I have began to wash and pick out fabrics for my upcoming projects. Now to take a week off to read and relax. Thank you for reading! <3
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