Other stuff

What happened to all the dresses?

hmmmm…

When I first started sewing I thought it would be the perfect way to indulge my addiction to dresses. Somewhere along the way I ended up making a lot of tops, a few dresses and not much else! So where did all the dresses go? And all the other plans I had?!

This revelation struck me as I was ironing my nice white fabric with red polka dots ready to make another top. Firstly, I stopped because it seemed the washing machine hadn’t gotten it very clean… hmm where are these dirty marks from?! And secondly, once I had stopped I did some thinking about skirts.

It’s nearly summer and I don’t have many skirts. Very few for work especially. So how about a polka dot skirt? I have a prima pattern for an A-line skirt saved up for the task and from what I hear they’re simple enough to make. So I’ve re-washed my fabric ready to start this very soon.

I also made a promise to myself to figure out why I have a lot of fabric, and a lot of dress patterns, but very few FINISHED dresses! “Finished” is the core issue as I have FOUR partially completed lying in my sewing corner and plenty more that I’ve plotted but not started.

One of my UFOs (Unfinished Objects) is a lovely pale green dress using a quilting fabric from The Skep – Knitting and Quilting shop in Farsley and a pattern from the book Famous Frocks by Sara Alm and Hannah McDevitt.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis dress

I’m so close with this dress. I just need to power on. The pockets need refitting before I can sew the skirt to the top. Then I can wear it to work!

Anna Maria Horner, innocent crush voile in “Shattered”

Another is made from Anna Maria Horner fabric, the “Shattered” voile from the Innocent Crush line.

I bought the fabric very early on in my sewing career and immediately started sewing a Butterick 4443. WHY?! I should have held onto this fabric until I knew what I was doing and made something better than 4443 out of it?! Chuh. Now I look at it and think is there a way to turn this into a different dress?! I don’t think there is but I keep looking.

I should just finish it and hope I like the outcome.

The “why haven’t I finished you?” green striped dress

Third there is a green striped number which I finished poorly and it started to unravel before I’d even worn it! So I unpicked it to redo the waist seam using my overlocker. But then I never actually rebuilt it!

The reason is that it has an elastic waist casing and I doing HATE elastic casings even though they fit me great. I always make them about 1mm too small and work up a sweat trying to thread the stupid safety pin through. But I do love this fabric and the dress would be so easy to wear to work or during relaxing times so I should get my butt into gear and finish it!

Finally I have my Vogue 8723 Ikea dress to finish. It’s mocking me even now while pinned to my mannequin. But something is throwing me off. I can’t tell if the fit is off or is it the slightly too dark lining fabric or possibly the fact I didn’t understitch the seams properly? Well whatever it is I want to get back into this dress soon!!

All very shameful I know. I need to remedy this problem asap. I have so many other things I want to sew I’m getting so tormented about what to work on!! I need some organisation in my sewing life and to stop being seduced by new projects.

(7) Comments

  1. I think i have the same closet- I keep thinking- ‘make tops, no more dresses’ but when I dig for the perfect summer dress to prance in- it’s still in pattern form?!

  2. I have the opposite – too many dresses, not enough tops! But I have a very similar UFO problem 🙂 Hope you find the organisation you’re looking for.

  3. I love that green striped dress! Finish it! It’s too cute to live its days in a closet

  4. missiep says:

    I really admire people who can sew with a plan , I sew to relax and have creative fun, so it’s annoying that it helps to be organised and, like, plan stuff 🙂 like Cigal I love that green dress go for it! may be you should not let yourself buy new fabric until you’ve finished yr ufos ? crazy talk!

  5. Good points ladies. I wish I could stop buying fabric but there’s always lining to buy and then while you’re there looking at lining you get distracted by new fabric!

    *Someone’s* blog mentioned on Tuesday’s she always returns to work on any UFOs in her stash. Only Tuesdays, to allow the UFOs to sneak a little bit of progress along but leaving the rest of the time for the exciting new projects she loves.
    Seems like a good idea! Just wish I could remember which of the blogs I read it was!

  6. Louise says:

    I LOVE Anna Maria Horner voile, soooo pleasant to the touch. I have a small amount of forest hills but don’t know what to do with it…

    P.S. this is the first time I have commented on a blog post… EVER!

    1. Yay Lou!
      See how easy it is.
      Get your blog up and running and I’ll comment on yours too.

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