Pikachu Dress

Hello readers!

Thanks for coming back this week for my review of the Pikachu dress I just finished. This dress was fairly simple to complete and looks so good. I had to fix some minor mistakes, but nothing too crazy. (Although, when installing the zipper I went on a Snapchat rant about sewing the bodice to the skirt, oops!)

For this blog entry, I decided to include a picture of me actually wearing the Pikachu dress, but you’ll have to excuse my fans and wonky hairdo.

The Pikachu Dress is the same franken-dress combination of Butterick b5748 bodice with a self drafted gathered skirt pattern. The fabric was purchased from fabric.com about 4 weeks ago. (Unfortunately, almost all of their Pokemon fabric is sold out. ) I received it in the mail quickly and began my usual steps for sewing the dress. This includes washing, drying, and hanging the fabric. Then I cut out the dress using my traced pattern pieces and ironing out the fabric before I start sewing.

The sewing process of this dress was fairly easy, except for gathering the skirt and installing the zipper. I had to unpick the gathers in the skirt twice until they were to my liking. The third time's the charm! Also, when trying to push the fabric through the threads, I would end up popping a stitch and two inches of gathers would come undone. I tried this new trick when gathering the skirt where I turn up the speed of the sewing machine while following the gathered fabric technique. This technique is increasing stitch size and then pushing the fabric while holding onto the bobbin thread. Having turned up the sewing machine speed, I didn’t need to try the gathering fabric technique because my machine made natural gathers! Woot. Finally, I took my time while sewing and actually enjoyed putting Pikachu together.

I was inspired to make this dress for my upcoming Pokemon Go @ Your Library program happening in one week. This dress took me over a week to make and that left time to fix anything before I wear it for my Pokemon program. I hope the participants of the program enjoy my dress. The library I work at has TWO Pokestops, so I plan on turning the Lure Modules on. I have made over 300 Pokemon Buttons, and I plan on offering Pokemon crafts and a viewing of a Pokemon movie.

Until next time!