This is a tutorial / walktrough how I made a floral sweetheart dress with princess seams. First i started drafting the pattern, I won´t go in detail on that process, because I used a Video for this myself, but I´ll link it here.
As said first I draped the pattern on my dressform, with white muslin and traced around the lines I created before. Then I laid it out and copied on paper, then sized it up and down to fit on my body.
I did that by measuring my chest and waist cirumferences and the ones from the dressform. Then clalculated the difference and divided it thruogh the number of my seams. then i enlarged or reduced it on the paper.
After I had the pattern I made a quick mock-up and altered the pattern to fit me really well. Then i cut the pieces out of the fabric. For the dress I used this floral fabric with blue, cyan and pink flowers on it. the fabric is very stiff ( should be a blend of cotton and synthetic fiber) ,so I won´t using boning, also because it´s less work and is easier to clean.
Then I made the first seam, the princess seam and i have to say, this one is really tricky, mainly because you have to ensure after every stitch, that the fabrics didn´t slip out of place and that there aren´t any wrinkles. I calculated the seam allowances with 2 cm.
It looks like this when it´s finished, I left one side open, this will be for the Zipper. and yes the bodice looks really strange, when it just lies on the desk.
so here is a photo, when I tried it on for the first time. Trying it on in between steps is really important, because if there are any mistakes, you could still correct them. for example. mine was a little big wide on me, so instead of the 4 cm, I will take in 6 cm on the side were the Zipper is. Altogehter I am really happy with the bodice. so I won´t make any other alterations.
But I wanted to add straps to the Dress, for more comfort when worn, thin straps don´t need much material, so I like to make them out of scraps, which meant, that I first had to cut the skirt, because it needed the most fabric and I had to look at the pattern.
With the scraps I could cut the straps, I made them 60 cm long so I have enough room for adjustments and 3,6 cm wide, so they would fit through my bias tape maker, but I didn´t cut them on the bias, altough many recommend it. I didn´t see the reason in it.
So I put them, through my bias tape maker and then folded in in half, the final straps are 0,9 cm wide. then I sewed across the edge to hold them togehter and they are finshed.
(first I tried to turn them inside out, but my fabric was apparently to stiff for that, it was a disaster)
The next Thing I made was the lining, I used the same pattern for it, and sewed it just like the outer fabric, first the princess seams, then the side seam, but I did make sure, that the side seam is on the other side, since the seams will be unfinished and they shoud face away from the body to the outer fabric. ( I hope that makes sense) I used a slighty shiny white cotton as lining.
So I left the seams raw, but I did use my pinking sheers on the lining, not on the main fabric, because there is a possibility, that the little zic-zacs show trough. I just trimmed them to about 0,5 cm
Then I put the lining, the main fabric and the straps together. It is very important to make sure, that the seams and the straps match, so I pinned this first and the everthing else.
After that I sewed where the needles are the sides and on the top. the right side of the lining, to the right side of the main fabric.
When I turned it around it looked like this. I ironed the seams open, wich wasn´t an easy task. but it really makes the wohle top look a lot better. ( The top looks a lot better on me, my dressform ist just too small for it, so it Looks kinda strange)
This is only the first part, because I really want to start on the christmas dress. I will continue this dress in january.
thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.
If you want the see the process of the Christmas dress, follow me ;)
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