Advancing: dress making

Trying my hand at dress making this evening. I figure, since I've mastered apron making, I need to move on to the next level, which is obviously dress making (own opinion).

The pattern definitely looks much more challenging, however I believe once I get it all cut out and pinned, it will start to come together nicely.

I was unaware I was going to start this project tonight, therefore I don't have specific fabric for a dress I'd actually wear out. This may just have to be a practice round. Also, I have found that there are an extreme lack of sizes in dresses, so I'm going to have to fudge around with it myself and hopefully not ruin it completely.

I have that beautiful dressform I have blogged about before, which is quite nice, however it is too big for my body type. I've seen a few things on pinterest about making a dressform to fit your exact body measurements, I think I may need to make that my next project.

Here we go.

First step: choosing which pattern I want to use

Second step: cutting out said pattern

Step three: pin pattern in place

Step four: cut out fabric

Step five: darting

Step six: basting the zipper

Step seven: sew zipper in with zipper foot (so easy!!)

Step eight: pin and sew dress back and front together. -- this is where problems came into play: I got stuck in the dress because my booty was too big for the pattern. I had to add a side panel in so the dress would fit. Major learning moment. Measure twice, cut once, believe the tape measure. I'll have to spruce it up to take attention away from the new panel.
Image: what the dress should have looked like (seam ripped out on opposite side)

 

step nine: