Operation Graduation Dress: Part 2

Emily — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:28:07 +0000

So now that my muslin is complete and (miraculously) fits, I’ve been doing some fabric shopping online. Luckily it’s been rainy up here because if it had been nice I would have wasted an entire afternoon indoors shopping for fabric online. Thanks to Powerpoint and Grab I made up a few “mock ups.” I’m pretty sure this is how they do it in the fashion world Anyhow, inspired by my buddy Shannon’s suggestion, I followed a trend I’ve been seeing around with two or three block colors. What do you think?

I’m leaning towards the first pick because it’s all lightweight cotton lawn or hemp, so it’ll be a little less formal. The other two are silk/cotton pique or a combination of the two.
In related news, my sewing machine is all packed up and ready to go home for spring break! I’ll be in Boston for a few days and in Philadelphia for a few days, but the rest of the week will be quality one-on-one time with my sewing machine. My iron will probably be involved. And I bet my golden retriever will get in there somewhere.

Operation Graduation Dress

Emily — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:00:28 +0000

I am graduating! After 18.75 years in school, I am almost done! Woohoo! So I need a dress. But part of my New Years Resolution was to not by any new clothes. This of course excludes absolutely necessary items, like a suit for interviews, a bridesmaid dress for my brother’s wedding, socks, and underwear. Because no one wins if I abstain for purchasing said items. What to do? I’m making my own dress.

I’ve sewn a few pieces of clothing, but with pretty limited success. I have two or three pieces that I wear, but a graduation dress is a whole new level for me. I shopped around for a pattern for a while and I ended up finding this one, Butterick 5353. My boyfriend’s sister got it for me for my birthday!

I usually just start cutting and figure everything out as I go along, but this time I decided that I should probably start with a muslin to make sure it fit. I have to say, muslin sewing was sort of liberating. It was nice to sew with reckless abandon. Sort of. As much as you can ever sew with reckless abandon I guess. Anyhow, while my roommate and I listened to podcasts I tried to piece this thing together. It was little more confusing than I expected, but in the end, it fit!

I think I might just wear it like this. Start a trend you know? Despite difficulty just figuring out the muslin, I’m pretty happy with the fit and I’m ready to start on the final product. But first I need to pick a fabric. I found some great swiss dot at Fabric.com:

But then again, a print might be a lot more fun. And there are so many prints out there to be had, all of these are by Amy Butler:

Decisions, decisions. What fabric would you use? I’m more than willing to let someone else make the decision here. So seriously, what fabric would you use?

On a Lark » muslin

Operation Graduation Dress: Part 2

Operation Graduation Dress