Welcome to the Jungle

(This post was originally at Bitches With Stitches on September 8, 2012)

I am SO excited, you guys! I cannot wait to show you my dress! It is the first dress I have ever made. The first real proper piece of clothing. I will call it my jungle dress. I won't hold out any longer. Here it is:

My necklace is really bothering me in this picture! Ah!

 Did you know that Marilyn Monroe was on these steps in the film Niagara? Neither did I until we shot this. One of the benefits of being married to a history buff.

 

So I was hugely inspired by Tilly's Birthday Party Dress, but I wanted to make this one my own. I went to Fabricland with a fabric in mind (I had gone once before and gotten so overwhelmed by the amount of choice that I was presented with that I left empty-handed! This was my first foray into completely creating clothing out of nothing, after all.), and when I arrived, I thought I should browse everything over once more just to be sure. Then I saw this cotton fabric instead! It was absolutely PERFECT for me. I love prints. I love animals. I love gray. And the way the print is laid out, it almost looks like stripes, which makes it even better. So I left Fabricland with this gray fabric, a gray zipper, Simplicity 2444, and nothing else (More on the other fabric in a few weeks).

I got home and as I was oohing and ahhing over the fabric, getting all touchy-feely with it, I looked down and realized that my dandelion yellow nail polish looked great with the gray. Back to Fabricland I go. I really should put more thought into things before I start a project. Oh well. Live and learn.

So I picked up a dandelion yellow polka dot cotton fabric, dandelion yellow thread, a bright yellow zipper, and interfacing, because I didn't know what it was until I got home. I washed my fabric on Monday night and got to work Tuesday and Wednesday. I had some zipper issues that were bumming me out so my productivity slowed and I was able to finish the dress until the following Tuesday. If I really wanted, I think I could have whipped it out by Friday. But life happens sometimes I guess!

Check out that zipper!

I can't take a picture without at least ONE silly face!

Oh! And I forgot to mention it has pockets! I love dresses with pockets! So convenient!

Look at those rhinos! And zebras! And Kangaroos! And Elephants! And Ostriches! Oh my!

I also decided that all the interfacing should be in the polka dot yellow. Just because that is how awesome I am. Did I mention how I'm modest too?

You can also sort of see that I purposely showed the stitching. If I'm going to be using bright yellow thread, then I want to show it off. So I had some fun with zigzag, and what I like to call the heartbeat, stitches.

And look at that bow belt! How awesome is it? I think it just completes the dress. Once more, it is from the lovely Miss Tilly. Check out her super easy tutorial here!

Now, I've taken sewing as part of my theatre studies in university, but that was mostly hand sewing techniques. We made one pair of mitts on the machine, and honestly, I could whip them up right now in about thirty minutes, including cutting the fabric out. So this was my first real foray into sewing. I did not take a lesson. I suppose I just follow directions well? But obviously, this dress is not perfect. If you look in the bow belt picture, you can see that my rhinos don't line up! That sounds ridiculous. My rhinos don't line up. Sorry. Also, I tried to work the pattern so that I only had one line of rhinos on the skirt, but clearly, that did not work out. Although I kind of like that part. But the centres not lining up does bother me quite a bit. The zipper is very wavy as well. I don't know why. Everyone I've talked to said it is fine. But why did it go wavy? I just don't know.

Anyway, here is a picture on our walk back home. Trevor looks unimpressed that I am taking his photo. Too bad. :)

See you soon!

Carlee

{Guns N' Roses "Welcome to the Jungle"}