A Frock By Friday

I participated in Grosgrain's A Frock By Friday sew-a-long.  It ran from this past Monday to yesterday.  The project was to sew a dress for yourself.  Each day she would post on her blog a step to making the dress.  If you had questions you could e-mail her and she would respond (very quickly I might ad).  I also had a friend in WA who participated.  We spent each night on the phone talking about this and that and our dresses.  

She started this out with a "Hey would any body be interested?"  She got such an overwhelming response that she went for it.  Each day she would tell us what would happen the next day.  The planner in me wished she would have laid it all out from the beginning.  I wanted to have my dress done by Thursday evening so I could wear it to my MOPS meeting.  That meant that I had to cut out all of Friday and step it up a day.  Here is what her week looked like for us:

Weekend: Buy material and print out pattern

Monday: Piece pattern together and cut out material

Tuesday: Sew together bodice and attach ruffle, sew facing together

Wednesday: Attach facing to bodice, sew skirt pieces together

Thursday: Attach skirt to bodice

Friday: Zipper and hem 

But this is what my week looked like.  I purchased my material the week previous while Brian was out of town.  It was super hard for me to pick a fabric.  I have never sew clothes, besides costumes, and I didn't know what to be looking for.  I then got my pattern printed.  I went ahead and pieced it all together over the weekend.  After reading her post I learned a much easier way of doing it for next time.  I try not to get onto the computer too often during the day.  So Monday morning I got on and she had not made her post yet.  Then I got on that afternoon and realized I should have pre-washed my fabric.  While I was waiting for it to wash I decided to start sewing an apron.  I used another apron for the pattern and got the bottom two-thirds of it done.

That evening after the kids were in bed I cut out my fabric.

I realized I should have a tall bar height table for cutting out patterns/fabric.  It was back breaking being bent over the entire time.  Tuesday I again did my work after the kids were in bed.  I put my bodice together

and then started on the ruffle.  This seemed easy, but it was one of the harder parts for me.  I was trying to gather it when my gather thread broke.  I had to rip it all out and start again.  Then as I was sewing it on, which in itself was a tedious time consuming part, I sewed in some extra spots of the bodice.  So I had to rip it out and start again.  Once done it was almost midnight, I didn't even bother going onto the next step, that could wait until tomorrow.

Wednesday was the facing and skirt.  It was really easy to sew the facing together and onto the bodice. 

I messed up a tiny bit sewing my ruffle on.  The facing didn't hid all of the mistake, but I think I am the only one who would notice.  Sewing the skirt pieces was also really easy.  It was a rewarding day of sewing.  Thursday was the day I wanted my dress to be done.  I was a bit worried that it wouldn't happen since I had been doing all of my sewing after the kids were in bed.  I needed to sew during naptime and I didn't know if it would be enough time.  Putting the skirt onto the bodice proved to go quickly.  Then onto the zupper - as I was attaching my foot the handle for the screw, to tighten it on, broke.  I spent unnecessary time trying to fix it when it occured to me to just tighten it even more.  After that the zipper just flew on.  I decided to adjust the pattern a little and ad a ruffle to the bottom.  It saved me from having to truly "hem" the dress.  Long post short, here is the finished dress:

Yes, I did get it done in time for my meeting.  I was pleased with the over all product.  But I did wonder if it ended up looking like a moo-moo.  I did get asked at my meeting if I had neglected my kids to make this (since Brian was out of town the whole week)?  No, there was no neglectful behavior - unless tying them up and looking them in the closet is neglectful.  Kidding!  After looking at other finished dresses I think I should have used two different colors.  Alas the joy of hind sight.  Friday since I wasn't sewing the dress I went to work finishing the apron.

Next time I will need to remember to put the pocket on the right hand side so that it is easier for me to get into.