I Made It!

Lately I've been inspired to try and make my own clothes.  I think it was our trip to a certain antique mall with vintage clothing that got me going.  I saw a pretty little cream and gold shift dress and I fell in love.  I could just envision myself going to my firm's holiday party in it.  I'm on the party planning committee and pretty much the "creative" department for the party, which has an "old hollywood" theme.  It would have been perfect.  The problem:  Well, like I said, it was a pretty "little" dress.  Like three sizes too small.  I didn't even attempt to try it on. (Oh, and thanks to everyone who suggested I just buy it and lose weight!)   Since then I've been feeling the need to find a vintage party dress - and spending time looking at dresses made me realize that I could probably actually make the kind of dresses that I like.  A simple shift dress is all I need in life.  I started thinking about the things I have made in the past, why they didn't work, and what I could have done to make them better.  And my mind opened up. 

This weekend I went to the fabric store to get some patterns and material to practice on.  So this is what I ended up with.  It's a cute little purple tweed work dress that- what do you know - I can actually wear!  And a bonus, it only cost me about $12 to make!  There were a couple of times when something wasn't quite right and, when I normally would have been like "whatever!" and kept going, I stopped and went back to make things perfect.  I still want to find a vintage dress for the holiday party, but I'm very happy with the outcome and proud of myself for actually learning and growing.  I can't wait to make more pieces.