blythelife.com
blythelife.com

A little success goes a long way

Written on July 19, 2010 at 11:45 am by Michelle
Filed under: Musings with tags:

Occasionally, I get a ‘what on earth am I doing?’ feeling when I’m sewing. Especially when it’s on a machine and I haven’t touched it in a few months (or, erm, years?). But then I find a pattern that I want to try, and it has great and clear instructions and I happened to have a new iron that’s not finicky and doesn’t make me want to throw it out the window along with some new fabric that I actually think is cute. Then I decide to give the whole ‘sewing thing’ another try, and I end up with something like this:

Empire dress #1

And while it’s not the fanciest dress ever, and everyone else has probably already tried and been successful with the pattern, it was an accomplishment for me because I followed the pattern, sewed the neckline and it didn’t come out looking wonky, and (best of all) it fits! Which is the most important part, of course.

I looked up a lot of sewing tips too, mainly on Plastic Paradise. I used a fray-stopping product on all the raw edges, I ironed the fabric before cutting, I ironed the bodice piece after inverting it and the hems for the skirt portion before sewing. I even snipped along the curved parts on the bodice so it would curve better. All in all, I think I may have caught the sewing bug!

I used the Blythe Empire Dress pattern from Puchi Collective.

4 Responses to “A little success goes a long way”

  1. ericaduh AKA @ericaduh
    says:

    Great job on the dress!! When I first started sewing this pattern I wanted to rip my hair out! 😛

    • Michelle AKA @blythelifecom
      says:

      I had a really difficult time with the ‘gathering’ part, I just could not figure it out, so I just did little pleats on my own, lol. It looks okay, but I really like the gathered look that others have, although this poofs out less 😀

  2. Mama Lisa says:

    You did a great job!!! Can’t wait to see the next one you make!

    Everyone has to start somewhere to get into sewing for Blythe. PP does have a great
    “Better than a Fig Leaf” section for sewing. Lots of great tips there and the people share knowledge freely. I love that section and it is one of my favorite on PP.

  3. Donna says:

    You did great. I’m learning (slowly!) too.
    As Mama Lisa mentioned; More than A Fig Leaf is my favourite section on PP too!

Leave a Reply to ericaduh

blythelife.com
blythelife.com