Sewing Project Completions!

 During my week off work, I finally got some time to do some more sewing. It was a very productive week! I made one dress from scratch (I drafted the pattern myself) and finished up the underskirt I'd been meaning to finish for over a year now...

The dress was modelled off a Gosu Rori dress, but i forgoed the lace and a few details to make it simpler and more classic. It has a bustle back and a gathered bust area. I did have a few issues with the fit of the bust and under arm area but they were easily fixed so it fits rather well now :)

 While making this dress I also got to try out a couple of new sewing feet- and an invisible zipper foot and a hemming foot! I'd used an invisible zipper foot before while at uni, and it really makes zip insertion very easy and, as the name would suggest- invisible! I'd highly recommend everyone to buy them, you can get them for just a few pounds on ebay. The hemming foot took a while to get used to as it only makes a 7mm hem and was very fiddly to keep the fabric in place in the foot. But again, it makes the hem look more professional because the stitching is kept straight. The only thing i'd actually change about this dress would be to have the ruffle as a folded piece instead of hemming it so that the reverse side of the fabric can't be seen when its gathered. Other than that i really like this dress and cant wait to co-ord it properly~

Here's a shot of the underskirt you can see worn with the dress. This was originally to be worn with the little overskirt in the picture below and the KayaxSatsuki concert i attended last year, but i was very busy at that time so i never finished both pieces. So i also dug those out of their drawer and finished making them. The underskirt is extremely full and ruffley- i really adore it! Its made out of a nice matte finished chiffon and instead of hemming it, i satin stitched the end. Not only does that prevent it from fraying at all, it also gives the edge some support and structure so the ruffles sit nicely. I chose to use a very thin (5mm) elastic for the waistband to reduce any bulk since it is meant to be worn under other

things. The overskirt i made to match it is made from a really nice stretch lace fabric which has a really de-constructed/  damaged texture so I made it asymmetrical and with a ragged cut hem. It fastens by a button on the waistband, which is adjustable so it can be worn at the hips over shorts etc for a more vk look. When i design things, i look for every possible way to make things versatile and used in a variety of ways. This way i can have more looks without having to have a enormous wardrobe. For example, when i first designed this, the 'skirt' piece was meant to be a 'dress' with a corset style top, but since i thought the lace would also look good over shorts and worn separately i made it this way so that it can be layered over various things.

Well that sums up my mini sewing spree! Hopefully I'll have more time soon to make some new things and get my fabric stash down again. Also, hopefully I'll be able to get some proper co-ordinates done with these things too. Please look forward to those~

See you next time :)