I stumbled across
Craftsy this summer and now I'm totally hooked. Craftsy is a site for online crafting courses. They have everything from cooking classes to sewing and everything in between.
I took the
50's Bombshell Dress class by Gretchen Hirsch from
Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing and it changed how I sew forever. The class is set up into sections with videos for each part of the sewing process. She explains everything very succinctly and the camera is always at a good angle so you can see what's happening.
The class starts with making a muslin, fitting it to your body, and altering the pattern. I have to say, I would not normally be able to wear a dress of this type off the rack, vintage or new. I'm too straight, not a lot of curves happening here. This class showed me I could make a sweet vintage style dress that fits like a glove!
Some pics of my progress....
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| Completed bodice outside |
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| All the hidden goodies |
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| Lots of couture hand-stitched details on the inside |
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| Pretty perfectly hidden lapped zipper |
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| Spiral steel boning for the bodice |
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| Steel boning offers lots of support as well as flexibility |
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| Boning casing in the liner (I see some corset-making in my future!) | | |
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| Finished interior: vintage style pinked seam allowances, pink ribbon waist stay, hand-stitched in liner with spiral steel boning, grosgrain ribbon zipper guard. Love all this and no one will ever see it :) |
