I have made many dresses for my Little Terror and dollies before, but never contemplated to make a dress for myself as I reckoned that women dresses can be really cheap on sale and a woman’s figure can be more demanding to sew for compared to a little humans/dolls. However I was tempted to try making my first Made-For-Me when I saw this empire-waist dress pattern in a Japanese magazine.
I shall present this dress using ‘The Sew Weekly’s Contributor’ style :)
The Facts
Fabric : 2.5 yards Thailand cotton from Malaysian local fabric chain Kamdar: RM17/USD5.70
1 yard each of the contrast fabric,Thailand cotton as well, RM13.60/USD4.50
Some interfacing
Total Cost: ~RM30.60/USD10.20
Pattern : Cotton Friend Summer 2011 Vol. 39
So far I have only worked with cottons so I naturally chose to work with cotton for this dress, but I think the dress, especially the sleeves and the skirt would drape better if I chose a more drape-y fabric. Can anyone advise on types of drape-y fabric to use which is not too tough to sew?
Time to complete: Spent average 2 hours each over 4 workdays after 9pm (after Little Terror has gone to sleep)
First worn: On my car porch to model for all of you, 23 July 2011
Wear again?: Not sure if I will step out beyond my car porch in this as it's too gaudy, too hippie looking, too home-made? My husband’s reaction when he first saw the dress was: “Is this a maternity dress?’ and ‘Are those sleeves meant to be that big?”. When I gave him the eye he said, ‘Well at least it looks like the dress in the picture of the book’. But I do admit I am not so mad about the billowy sleeves. But I do like how the fabrics matching turned out. If only I have the courage to wear this out of the house!
More pictures and info in this blog post
http://sertyan.blogspot.com/2011/07/my-first-made-for-me-rose-garden-dress.html