The Coffee Date Dress

The last week has been pretty unusual in our house...  Jeff started a new job (A/V director!), so he's been at work a lot.  I was getting pretty bored at home by myself.  Then last Monday, I had a thought - my birthday was coming up on Friday, and I wanted to go out for a nice dinner, but what would I wear?  I found myself on Pinterest, and next thing I knew, I had found a somewhat easy-looking dress pattern.  So off I went, found some fabric in my craft box, printed out the pattern, and decided that I would make this dress and be wearing on my birthday.

24 pages of pattern to sort through...

The pattern taped together

After I printed out the pattern, I saw that I would have to cut the borders off every sheet, match the edges, tape it all together, and then cut out the pieces.  I also read the directions all the way through at this point, and realized that I'd have to do an invisible zipper and this thing called all-in-one facing.  I may have panicked a bit at that point... I do not like zippers.  I've had bad experiences with them.  Well, with sewing projects in general.  I was always too hasty and ended up messing stuff up and had to unpick it and redo it and then I'd get frustrated and give up on it.  But I was determined not to let that happen this time.

The pattern pieces

So I got all the pieces cut out, the fabric marked and cut, and was ready to start sewing.  The bodice and ruffle came first, which wasn't too bad.  Attaching the ruffle to the bodice was kind of frustrating though.

ruffle: completed.

Then came the first true test of my patience: the all-in-one facing.  Now, according to blogs, and google, and my mother (a seamstress extraordinaire), this was a pretty awesome way to get neat and finished edges for the armholes and neckline - especially when the dress doesn't have a lining.  I spent a good hour looking up tutorials and pictures and videos of the process, but it was still pretty nerve-wracking.  My younger sister showed up soon after I finished sewing the facing, at which point I was jumping around the room, so excited that it actually worked. Then came the skirt, which I attached to the bodice.

attaching the facing

facing is done and skirt attached

Next: the bane of my existence.  I was sweating bullets by the time I started working on the invisible zipper.  I was so scared of ruining the dress at this point.  So I went SUPER slowly.  And by some miracle, it worked.  I had a zipper, and the sides were lined up and it was even - what?!  So excited.  I quickly finished off the top edges and attached the hook and eye.

the finished zipper!

After that, I sewed a blind hem (by hand), tacked down the ruffles so they wouldn't stick up in weird ways, and made a couple adjustments to the side darts to make the dress fit better.  Mission accomplished!!!!  Friday came, the dress was completed, and I wore it out for dinner.  I'm still beyond excited that this project worked out so well... I think I could get used to this.

the finished product!

Thanks to Elaine May for the pattern, which can be found here: http://selfishseamstress.wordpress.com/downloads/