Birthday Dress Photos!

Andrew and I went to Cochon, a nice restaurant downtown. It was excellent and all of the food was delicious! Plus, I got to wear my birthday dress, which is great! I should start making fancy dresses more often and make Andrew take me to nice restaurants! Hee hee.

Again, it is not quite so shiny in real light, with no flash. I also wore the shoes I plan on wearing with my bridesmaid dress- conclusion: maybe for the ceremony, but they are very pinchy!

The only changes I made to the pattern were to shorten the length dramatically, make the waist about 1 inch bigger, and to add the bra strap carriers for the boat-neck.
Here, you can see that the back has a V neck, which is pretty.
All in all, I really like this dress. It is pretty, but more importantly, comfortable enough to enjoy a nice dinner without being pinched like a sausage! Yay!

Birthday Dress Complete!

It's really shiny in the sunlight and keep in mind the dummy is not wearing her bra.

Front, with a wide boat neck.

Side. The side seams doesn't match up because I used one big strip of fabric and The Ruffler to gather the skirt. Oh well, who will notice but me?
The back has a V neck.
I put in the zipper by hand, and the puckers are much less obvious in reality. I can't even envision how ugly it would have been if I had tried it on the machine!!
I attached shiny green ribbon and hemmed it by hand; it took one episode of Rome.
I am going to add bra strap carriers, like on the yellow dress. With the wide neck, it will be very beneficial. The Fray Check is drying right now, but I will try to finish them today.

Next, I am making a skirt.

A pause, and a new project

This dress is being put on pause for a while. I did a hem test on the machine and it looked terrible and puckery, so I guess I will be by hand- boo. The sleeves and the skirt, I mean. I might fiddle with the tension and stitch length to avoid that dire fate.

Now it is too loose through the waist and hips, too, so that will need to be taken in as well. I bought dark brown velvet ribbons for the bands, instead of black. I also bought silver buttons instead of flashy gold one. I am not entirely sold on them yet. I need a break, and an easy, fun project.

Therefore, I am making the view on the left in this fabric. It is some kind of polyester and I plan on using the shiny reverse, rather than the dull front. It is very teal blue and pretty. I want a pretty, non-work dress to wear to dinner for my birthday, which is the 23rd.
Hopefully, I can bust it out this weekend!