Hi, my fellow needleworker. I hope you all are doing great. I celebrated my birthday recently, and I'd love to share the process of making my birthday dress with this amazing community.
To be honest, I find it difficult to celebrate my birthday. My family aren't huge on celebrating birthdays and I usually don't love to celebrate my birthday because they never go right, at least that's what I thought.
However, this year I wanted something different, I wanted to have a good birthday, simple but memorable. I wasn't doing too much, I just wanted to make two nice dresses, a home photoshoot, and probably a little outing. Unfortunately, things don't always go as planned.
First, my cake vendor cancelled on me last minute and I was too tired to find another. Also, Making my dress was more stressful. I was busy and I was only able to sew the dress at night.
I almost gave up on all my plans because they were falling apart, but thank God I didn't. This experience made me realize that everything doesn't have to be as planned for it to be beautiful.
As I wrote earlier, I planned to make two dresses but as life wanted it, I was able to make only one. Making this dress was fun, I could remember trying it on while sewing, and I was so happy that the outcome would be as beautiful as sketched. The bottom, however, was a little disappointing, so I had to drape the bottom to make it look more beautiful and I think that was a good idea.
Materials: The total cost of material was pretty inexpensive. Most of the material used was left over from previous projects except the pattern fabric my mum gave me.
- velvet
- Pattern crepe fabric
- Boning
- Fusible interface
- Invisible zipper
- 4 inches elastic band
- Hook and eye
- Bias tape
The process:
I wasn't able to do a full step-by-step picture so this is just a bunch of progress shots.
I draft the pattern for the upper part of the dress and cut it. I had to manage the fabric so I used less than my normal 1/2 inch sewing allowance.
I ironed the interface on all the pieces of the fabric I cut and the lining as well. I joined all the pieces appropriately.
I sew the boning on the lining because I want the boning to be invisible.
I wanted a snatched but I didn't want to make a corset so I decided to use an “elastic band waist snatcher”. I cut the elastic 1/3 of my waist measurement with a sewing allowance and I sewed the hook and eye to it. This is a very good alternative if you don't want a corset but want a snatched waist.
I sew the zipper and the turtle neck.
I was done with the upper bodies and I attached the bottom. I didn't like the bottom and I didn't have time to think about it or resew so I draped the bottom and I think I liked it.
Here are the final results and pictures, what do you think?
My birthday didn't go as planned but I was able to make the best out of it and it was beautiful.
Thanks for reading my blog and stay creative ❤️
All images are mine, thumbnail using canva