I remember few months back when I still struggled with pedalling the sewing machine. It was so hard but with time, I learnt it. And then, my next struggle was with sewing in a straight line. That too wasn't so easy. I remember having to bend the cloth to the left or the right when I began veering off the stitch line. I would bend the cloth to whatever side it had to face just so I could get back on track. And when I was done, the sewing would look like what a one year old kid who's still learning to draw a straight line would do. But now, I'm able to make a wearable gown.
I and my mom went to the market recently and we came across a material she really liked. We decided to purchase it and when we got home, she asked me to make a gown with it for her. I'd never made a gown before and I had to learn. This was an opportunity for me since most of the time I'm supposed to embark on projects, I'm usually in school and away from my sewing machine. I took up the task of making this gown and I was really happy with the outcome. Let me take you through the process of making this gown.
So, like I said I've never made a gown before. I haven't even made a top and I had no idea how to go about cutting the upper parts of the gown. My mom had a gown of similar style so I followed how the shoulders and neck were cut and I did the same to the material. I traced the full length of the dress and from the remaining material, I cut out the arms.
I sewed the arms of the dress to both shoulders and then stitched both sides of the dress. Closing it all up. For the neck, she wanted a very high neck and I figured that for us to achieve a high neck that would pass through the head, I had to put a button. So for that, I made an incision of 4.5 inches and hemmed the edges. I then made a little button hole out of material pieces, that I was going to add to the neck, when I was done with binding the neck line.
When I had prepared my buttonhole, I kept it aside and decided to fix the neck. I added a black bias tape to make it firmer in appearance and I'll like to think that was the hardest part of this gown. Adding the bias strip to the neckline. This was a double-fold bias tape and I had to sew it in two places. One directly at the top of the neckline and the other, just where the lower fold ended. I did that and when I was very close to where I wanted my button hole to be, I sewed it in.
For the arm endings, I made a big gap when hemming it. That's because I wanted to use an elastic band for the arm. I fixed the band in and I closed it all up. Then, I stitched the edges of the gown to prevent it from fraying and with that, I was left with just one thing. The rope.
From the pieces of materials left, there was one suitable enough to serve as a rope so I folded it backwards, sewed it and turned it back to the front. That's it! I was done.
Finished look:
This gown was very simple to make and I was really happy with how it turned out. School has me at a disadvantage when it comes to sewing but I'm still happy with these small wins I make every holiday. Cheers to more sewing years ahead.
And also, Happy New Year beautiful members of the Needlework Monday Community. Thanks for reading.
Images are mine