Sew Dance

I have begun my next dress, which I have names 'roses' in the labels. I have less than four weeks to complete it. Thankfully due to labor day I had an extra day so I got a fair amount done. First, I shall present the pieces that came in my fabric set. I received 3 pieces of the following shaded fabric. The bodysuit and skirt will be cut from these: Next, I received four pieces of organza for the underskirt (2 were extra), pre-cut into circles:   This piece of the same material as the first three, but with the added roses, are for the main body of the dress. The coiled wad is horsehair braid printed with a similar pattern to the fabric for use on the bottom of the skirts. I have eight 7 ft pieces. The fabric on the right is the pattern printed on nude mesh for the gloves. When I'm tan for competitions, there will be an illusion of the leopard being tatooed on my arms. The last piece is for bracelets and the collar. Finally, we get to the actu...

Well, here's the dress so far. Back isn't as smooth as I would like, but it's not really going to be seen once I put all the fringe on. There are other little flubs but as it's not meant to be stared as closely, it should be fine. But I've decided to redo the zipper anyway after starting to attach the fringe. I just don't like how it looks, and I want the back to be tighter, easiest way to do this is take it in at the back seam.

Yes, 1/4th done (rough estimate) As you can see, I've moved on the the lower left quadrant of Frederick and what was dominated by brown, red and gold, now has some blue and purple. I realize the picture's a little dark, I didn't have him illuminated by my stitching light when I took it.  As for the dress, the bodysuit now looks like a swimsuit. I just have to finish off the elastic on the upper edges and fit the bra to it and it'll be wearable. Then I stick the skirt on and I'm ready to add the fringe. Yippee! And yes, those are my fuzzy slippers to the right of the picture.

Ok. I've had this pattern for a while with the intent to make a smooth dress. I have finally figured out the logistics to make it. The majority of the dress is gathered pieces stitched onto interfacing and the main panel of the bodice has batting since they have the diagonal lines top-stitched onto it, not the best thing for dancing, too solid. I will take my princess seam pattern to make the bodysuit. This should give me the seaming in the bodice. Next, out of the 15 pieces the pattern came with, I only need 6 and 3 I can wing if absolutely necessary. The halter strap will be encased elastic with the other fabric gathered onto it in a similar fashion to the current red smooth dress I'm wearing for competitions. (That reminds me I need to move the lower two straps to take up the back of the dress.) The only thing I need to figure out now, is color, fabric, and stone pattern. Well, probably going to stone the bodice to mimic the top-stitching. Fabric is probably going to be...

I have two things to update today. One, my latest progress on Frederick. you can actually see his face. Isn't he cute? Two, I have a picture of my dress' progress. I inserted the elastic on the legs. Despite not using a blind hem presser foot for my serger, I only cut the hem slightly once. Need to work on catching the fabric more but hopefully no one will have to see that portion of the dress. *whistles innocently* Now I just need to work on the top and insert the zipper. I have a feeling that once this portion is done, the rest will be much easier.

I just had my first lesson of the new year. Went over tango and started the new cha cha choreography. Fairly productive for the lesson. Still have a ways to go before the comp in march. As for my latin dress, I have no idea what's wrong with my brain when it comes to making it. First, i forgot I needed a zipper and cut the back in 1 piece. Luckily the pattern had already accounted for that. But upon cutting it, I for some reason ended up cutting the front in half. Stupid mistake, so I ended up cutting the front piece again and split the back, then sewed them together and did the darts. Decided I'm just going to attach a skirt to the bodysuit once I've finished with it. Next part is to finish sewing the seams. First time using the serger so wish me luck.