Saturday, November 24, 2012

Thanksgiving Dress

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and spent yesterday in a turkey coma with their families.  I ate leftovers, went to the antique store to look for a bar cabinet (found one I loved but the husband couldn't commit - I hope that means Santa is bringing it for Christmas), and saw Lincoln with friends.  It was a really nice day and I was happy to avoid the mall and Christmas shopping altogether.

A few weeks ago, I saw Taylor Swift in this dress and about died.  HOW freaking cute is she?!  I want to steal everything she is wearing, including her hair and her lipstick.  I couldn't find the designer of the dress on any website.  Maybe it's vintage?  So instead, I went on a hunt for fabric.

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I found some pretty similar upholstery fabric on Etsy (Premier Prints "Amsterdam" slub, if anyone is interested) and ordered two yards. I didn't bother with a muslin because I made this pattern already last year. I completely finished it and tried it on, and it was a disaster! It was a good 4" too big in the bust. I lost a little over 10 pounds this summer (mostly due to the half-marathon training) and this dress was totally huge on me. I barely even noticed the weight loss because I wear a lot of stretchy, drapey stuff, but my chest must have totally shrunk. So, I too the zipper off and took it in a couple inches on each side.

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I figured that ought to do it. NOPE. Still huge. At this point, I was like "forget it". I was not about to do the zipper for a third time. Now the back fits nicely, but it's still huge under the arms and in the chest, which I would have to take off the zipper and detach the bodice from the skirt to fix. That's what I get for making it fully lined for warmth and a nice finish.  If I had just done the facings, I could easily fix it without all that extra work!

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It's not terrible on. It looks decent from the back.

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The front was so loose, though!

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I'm not gonna lie, I didn't wear it. I changed into a vintage dress. Once the annoyance wears off, I'll get around to fixing it.  I really do like it and want it to work!  I think I might actually make the straps a little narrower, too, and take it up a bit in the shoulders.  I think it's worth fixing, I just have to suck it up and do it.

On a brighter note, my buttons for my blue coat came!  I'll get a picture later and show you which ones I chose. 

Enjoy your weekend and happy sewing!



7 comments:

  1. What a bummer to make it so nicely and then need to do so many changes. I hope you fix it because it looks like a great dress and I love the Taylor Swift inspiration version, too. I think you are right in narrowing the shoulder straps.

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  2. Very pretty dress! just like Taylor Swift's, I also love all her clothes! fix it, it is a very pretty dress!

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  3. What a shame, because it's lovely and the back looks great. It definately needs some time in the corner to have a think about itself! Good luck with the fixing.

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  4. You should definitely fix it as it looks beautiful!!!

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  5. What a fabulous fabric find to match!!! And as I'm loving the way Taylor looks in that dress, so it's only natural that I'm totally in love with yours too. You just need a mustard cardi to match :P

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  6. Make no mistake this dress is just lovely on you, sure a little big from the front view, but absolutely positively worth the time to do whatever it takes to fix these issues, in my opinion. The style suits you really well.

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