January Sewing Project

One of my goals for the new year is to try my hand at sewing. I've sewn a few things here and there over the years but I've never been able to complete a project from scratch that I'm really proud to wear... they've always turned out a bit wonky. So, this year I'm taking on the task of completing on garment from scratch every month with the hopes of adding a few things to my wardrobe I'll want to wear on a regular basis.

Yesterday I finally got around to tackling January's project. I picked a simple 60s dress pattern with a darted bodice and lightly gathered skirt and used an inexpensive printed cotton fabric from a local fabric store. Since it was my first project I didn't want to use vintage fabric or something expensive just in case it all went awry! I was going to take some "during" photos to show you how things went, but this being my first try, I wanted it to be pressure-free. Next time I'll take photos!

As you can see from the photos I actually completed the dress! Most of the sewing was done yesterday under the helpful eye of the best instructor I could have (thanks Mom!). Minimal use of the seam ripper was employed. ;) I couldn't find my zipper foot yesterday so I had to put the zipper in by myself this morning. Truth be told, if I'm going to be 100% happy with the dress I think I'll take the zipper out and try it again. There are a few pesky wonky stitches that I know will bug me if I don't fix them. The dress called for a tie belt, but I wanted to do a button tab belt instead to test my button hole skills. They're not exactly the prettiest button holes I've ever seen, but technically they're holes and a button went through them so... mission accomplished! Now if only it would stop snowing outside so I could actually wear it.