Rad Ruffles
For week two I decided to really kick it up a notch with a dress decked out with a collar of ruffles. After all, who doesn’t love a good ruffle? I again borrowed a pattern from my good buddy Amy and went in search of the perfect fabric. I found an awesome iridescent orange taffeta-like blend that I absolutely loved and went to town.
From the word go this dress gave me troubles, but I was determined to see it through. Something about pockets and this type of waist always gives me a hard time. The pattern also called for collar reinforcement, so I had to sew in an extra layer around the back collar line — like putting in a finished edge for sleeve-less armholes. Sounds simple, yet my finished product lacked the clean, polished look it was supposed to have.
Worst of all I mutilated the zipper. I don’t know what happened exactly, but one of my layers got stuck under the zipper when I sewed it in and short of redoing the entire thing I had to cut the layer that got stuck leaving an awful looking raw edge that could not be fixed. Not to mention that I couldn’t quite figure out how to get the zipper in AND put in the finished arm hole/sleeve that I mentioned earlier so that it looked right. I got it done, but something was definitely not right. Luckily the rad ruffles that drew me to the dress in the first place came out perfectly.
Shay rockin the rad ruffle collar dress
I knew out of the gate this dress was going to be a challenge so I gave myself plenty of time, which was good cause once I put on the finished product it was obvious that it wasn’t going to work for me. The style of the skirt is straight, pencil . . . the waist sinches in, which fit fine, but then either miss measuring or miss sewing caused the skirt to be too tight right in the thigh. I attempted to sit and the seam completed came out. Bummer. With the extra time I threw together an un-notable skirt from some fabric I had on hand, repurposing a zipper from a project I did last year (that ironically didn’t fit either) so I had something to wear on reveal day.
All in all I was proud of the ruffle dress and wish it would have worked out. I learned though that even when making your own clothes you still have to make things that will work for your body type. I NEVER would have purchased a dress like this at the store cause of how it would have fit on my thighs, so why on Earth did I think it would work if I made it? Hmm . . . something to definitely think about next time. So, to show off my creation I had my no-thighs, 18-year old sister, Shay, try on the dress for the photo shoot. She makes the ruffles work and in the photo you don’t see any of the blemishes I know are there.
