A Summer Dress

 

This summer, I set about on a task of making (sewing) a dress for an upcoming wedding. We were heading out to the country to celebrate the marriage of good friends of ours, and I wanted a light summer dress for the occasion. I would say that I am somewhat adept at sewing, but my one weakness, I would say, is actually finishing what I start. My mother can attest (and now husband) to the small piles of fabric that were purchased with such grand hopes of one day becoming a dress or a jacket or a shirt, and now sit in the dark waiting for their time to shine.

You see, sewing, unlike knitting, takes a dedicated space and time, and loads more equipment than just knitting needles and yarn. You need a table big enough to cut your fabric out on, you need to iron, and you need to set up your sewing machine. In our little condo, we currently lack that space for a permanent sewing area, so this also means I have to set up and take down for each sewing session.

But I was determined to change all that and find time this summer to make myself a dress. There were two reasons for this: 1) I find it very hard to dress shop: dresses can be a financial investment, and most often I can’t seem to find exactly the right one worth spending the money on. 2) Making my own dress allows me control of the pattern, fabrics, and fit. Of course, fabric shopping can in and of itself be just as challenging as finding a dress already made, and you still have to sew it! But not matter. I was able to find a fairly simple and geometric black and white linen (boring, I know) and a bright splash of green to add as a belt. The pattern I choose had no zippers or buttons, so there were not too many difficult elements to it. It did have an elastic waist, a belt, and pockets (I think every dress should have pockets!), but all in all, I was fairly confident that I would be able to get it done in the time allotted, about 2 months.

Well, it was the weekend before the wedding and the dress was still in the fabric pile. Nothing like a little time crunch to put the gears in motion. I dedicated two days to the project: the first for cutting and ironing, the second for sewing. Turns out this was just enough time to get a dress together.

To be honest, I wore the dress the next weekend with a little hesitation. I was sure that it looked “too homemade” and not fancy enough for the wedding, but I was assured (albeit it by loved ones) that it looked just fine. I know there are still some tweaks that I need to finish before I wear it again, but luckily a little black sweater hides most of the imperfections. I’ll fine-tune it as I work on my next dress, using the same pattern and adjusting the size until it fits just perfectly. Off to my fabric pile I go….