Ballgown…Disaster!

As previously mentioned I had a ball to go to on Saturday night, so I spent a good chunk of my spring break working on the ball gown that I started a while back.  I finally finished it Saturday morning before heading off to work.  I had tried it on several times as I was working because I knew I wouldn’t have time to do any major alterations after all was said and done.

It fit perfectly and everything was fine Saturday morning when I finished hand stitching the super huge hem.

I went to work, came back and had about 40 minutes to get ready, about 5 minutes before we’re going to leave I put my dress on, zip it up, turn to get my shoes and the zipper broke!  It came undone all the way down the bottom (22″zipper) as I tried to fix it the pull fell off too.

So I put normal clothes on ran over to Dillards and bought an emergency dress to wear to the ball.

I’m really disappointed that months of work on this gown all came apart because of a $2 zipper.  Later when I was telling people about it they asked why I chose such a cheap zipper and didn’t get a higher quality one.

The answer: I wasn’t offered a choice at the fabric store, there is only one brand of invisible zippers available at most fabric stores, unfortunately these zippers are cheap.

I’m thinking of ordering an assortment of higher quality zippers just to have on hand.

Project Ball Gown

 

Here it is so far!  The front is finished. 

Here is what I have left:

1. sew together the back bodice and back skirt
2. attach boning
3. insert lining
4. insert zipper
5. find ball to attend

Ball Gown: The Beginning

The Pattern

The Fabric: Canary Yellow Taffeta from Hancock Fabric’s bff by Lauren Hancock

I cut out the main fabric this evening and will cut out the lining tomorrow night

ants in my pants…

I’ve been feeling kind of antsy with my sewing lately.  Just 3 years ago I could barely sew a straight line, and would call my mother (or have her do it for me) at the sight or a dart or a sleeve inset.  Since then I’ve learned alot, mostly by making mistakes and I’ve now been approached about teaching sewing lessons.  I’m very flattered but I’m far from knowing everything I should know about sewing and I think my sewing education has plateaued lately.  But with school 5 days a week and work on the weekends I can barely find the time to take classes, so I’ve decided to give myself “assignments” to pick up new skills.  These assignments involve finding patterns with stuff I’ve never done before or have tried to do on my own and failed miserably.

My 1st assignment involves learning 2 new skills:

1. using slippery fabrics- tried this before…it was bad
2. boning-NEW

This is the pattern I’ll be using, Butterick 4918.  I also chose this one because I want a ball gown and I feel like spending a few hundred dollars on a dress in a store, when I have no where to wear it to is unacceptable.  However spending about $40 on fabric and countless hours on one is completely acceptable.

Does anyone have any recommendations for “average” or harder patterns?  I’ve found that most of the BIG 4 patterns are labelled “easy” or “very easy”