No-pattern skirt

So…I am totally playing catch up. Can you tell? This is my most recent project which I am very excited about, because I didn't use a pattern! Woot! I found an old dress from goodwill that didn't really fit me, but I thought I could use it as a guide to somewhat repeat the look. The dress was black too…not really my style. I recently discovered in a classroom management class…that…I am indeed a parrot (my personality style). Can you see a parrot wearing black? Aside from that tangent, I used some of the pieces to make this skirt. Originally the flounce on the dress was completely different. It was split in the center from (two pieces) which I didn't really like. The flounce also looked a little different in the back. Lastly, the dress length was quite a bit longer. This too, I plan on using for engagement pictures. My only question is, "What is this gosh darn fabric?" I purchased it at Wal-Mart; five yards for five dollars. It had absolutely no description of the fabric. When I ironed it while in the sewing process, it actually wrinkled the fabric! Does anyone have any idea how I could potentially get the fabric pressed? I think I may try to get it wet and lay it out flat. We will see how it goes.

Simplicity 2346

Originally I was thinking about making the groom and groomsman attire for the wedding. This was somewhat of a test trial to see how the vest would turn out. I used navy linen fabric with a silver lining. I had purchased some tarnished looking silver buttons at first, but realized that the vest would be perfecto for our engagement pictures! In this case, Marty usually wears his cowboy boots and brown belt. Therefore, I went with a tarnished copper look. Unfortunately my laziness (if that is a word) took over t his simple project or I would have chosen a different color for the lining. All in all, I think it turned out well, especially without the cheesy pocket for the original pattern! Doesn't he look like a handsome fellow?

DRESSFORM TRIAL 2C

So it has been too long since I have last posted. Since my last post, I have done…A LOT! I haven't taken as many pictures along the way as I would have liked to. Sorry!



After sanding it down, I used some pictures online as guides to mark the sides, princess lines, bust line, underbust line, waist line, and my hip line.

Second, I purchased some fun turquoise jersey fabric with stretch to create a cover that could grow/shrink if I needed to modify my dressform for any reason. I used my dressform to pin the fabric along the necessary seam lines that I marked. You can see where those were in the picture. I made one for the front right, front back, and princess front to princess back. Then I doubled both of those pieces of fabric.
I sewed all of the pieces together, then pinned the seams along the lines I marked on the dressform.


Fourth, I stapled the remaining fabric to the plywood on the bottom of my dressform.

Next, I pinned white ribbon to my dressform to make necessary lines easily visible for working.

Following that, I traced and cut out pieces of cardboard to cover the exposed foam where the neck and arms were located. I hot-glued the fabric around the cardboard pieces and pinned those in place to finish the form.

The last thing I did was create a base that is my heighth. I will not go into detail on how the base was assembled unless someone inquires about it.


I still have yet to sand the base down smoothly, paint it white to go with my color theme, and glue the form to the base (I'm not quite sure if I should glue it or not). Any suggestions?