Wonderland — 2018 Blog — Hey Porkchop!

I took a bit of a crafting/blogging break unintentionally! I'd made this huge list of projects I wanted to try this year but I ended up trying something completely different- sewing garments!

I've never really sewn clothes before or wanted to. But I was in a crafting rut in April, Me Made May was coming up and I thought "well, I can try this"! My personality is such that when I want to learn to do something, I want to REALLY learn it and immerse myself in it. So I researched, sewed, researched, sewed a bit more.

Ashleigh's birthday dress was my first "big" woven project. I'll say woven because I also sewed myself a bathing suit but that's knit and totally different. ;)

It was a PROCESS. Total process and I *loved* every second of it.

First, a bit of backstory:

Ashleigh only wears dresses. She is the most ladylike lady you'll ever meet. She loves ModCloth and we stumbled upon a ModCloth dress one day out of Alexander Henry fabric. It got me thinking "what if eventually I could sew Ashleigh a surprise dress". Which turned into me deciding in July that I'd make her a dress. I'd only been sewing clothes since the end of May. And her birthday was July 28th.

The pattern was an easy choice- McCall's 6696 and the fabric was easy-ish too. Ashleigh loves Alice in Wonderland AND Rifle Paper so that was a win win.

In order to make her the dress, I was like a sneaky spy! I asked if I could "borrow" one of her brand new dresses so I could "try it on so maybe I could get one as well", which is so goofy because I don't wear dresses! But I had a physical garment that I could lay the pattern pieces against to make sure it fit.

I then spent a week asking her the most RANDOM questions such as:

"Hey, I just cleaned out my closet and I found some brand new bras in a D cup...would they fit you?!" Because the pattern is based on cup sizes. Spoiler alert: I haven't worn or owned a D cup bra since probably 2009! ;)

"I was just telling Eric how tall your sister is, how tall is she again? How tall are you compared to her?" Because I needed to hem the dress and I didn't want it to be too short!

"Oh, I'm thinking about getting some Rifle Paper fabric, which one is your favorite print again".

And so on. This was tricky because she is my best friend so I needed to be sneaky which I am absolutely not known for. I'm the type of person who will buy you a Christmas gift and then give it to you months before Christmas because I AM TOO EXCITED AND I CAN'T WAIT. So this was torture. And we work together all day. At one point I was so afraid that I wouldn't get it done that I had her on FaceTime with my computer angled up so she couldn't see what I was sewing while I was on the phone with her!

Thankfully, it all came together beautifully!

I scheduled out 4 hours a day for a total of 12 hours. It ended up taking me closer to 19, mostly because I learned I am a very, very, very slow sewer.

Here are the details:

Pattern: McCall's 6696
Fabric: Rifle Paper Co. Mad Hatter in Black.
Buttons: Purchased at Heartstrings.
Modifications: I skipped all the hand sewing and used an edge stitch foot for very tidy results.
Lessons learned: First yoke, placket, buttonholes, collar/collar stand I've ever sewn.
Sew Again: YES! I'm not someone who wears dresses but I tried this on as I went just to make sure everything was straight and tidy and I liked it! I picked up Big Roar to use as a wearable muslin.
Pattern Difficulty: I had to google a few steps that weren't super clear to me, along with the height McCall's drafts for. Out of 5, I'd give it 3 stars, keeping in mind that this was my very first big project. :)

I'm excited to blog about some of my projects and get into the swing of sharing again. :)