From time to time I am going to take a step back from sewing nerd related garments and try my hand at making actual clothing. I like to think of it as my way of polishing my skills. When in actually reality I am just slave labor for my family (but who isn’t). Making something that someone plans on wearing on a daily bases always spooks me because with cosplay you can, if under time constrains (Like say its 3 am and the convention is tomorrow.), cut corners or fall back on that old saying my friends and I toss around, “As long as it looks good on camera.” However, you can imagine how this motto would not be one to follow for an everyday frock.     

 I was asked by a relative if I would be willing to make them a sun dress for their up and coming trip to Greece and since I had the time I agreed. They needed something that was black but airy so they didn’t melt under the Mediterranean sun and so after we looked at a couple pattern books we settled on a dress and tunic pattern from Butterick (B5637).

As you can see it’s just a simple dress that is fitted through the bust and has side seam pockets. I have actually never sewn anything before with 3 gathered tiers so this took me a little longer to make this as I was making sure I was reading the instructions carefully. Over all the instructions of the pattern were not difficult to follow for any skill level. 

I did run into some problems while sewing. I think it was my choice in fabric, cotton, which caused me to have problems when I was sewing the dress. The material had a creased texture which means it stretched a bit. The band at the back of my neckline and the seam where the bodice and the skirt meet don’t line up along the zipper. It frustrates me to no end that they are off from one another by 4mm. It’s not noticeable unless you really look at it but it’s always hard as a sewer when you know that a mistake is there to ignore it.

I also did some hand stitching finishes on the instead of garment instead of just running through my serger. Because I am not professionally trained nor did I have any home economics classes in highschool I learned a lot of hand sewing techniques from books and internet tutorials. Youtube is really a wealth of knowledge when it comes to simple sewing techniques. I am very much an audio and visual learner so it helps me to watch videos. I thought I would pass on this great video that teaches you how to do a slipstitch for anyone out there who is learning or even to check to make sure you’re doing it correctly(The later is what happened in my case. I thought I was doing a slip stitch but it turned out to be nothing but a mess of threads.). 

In the end I think I would sew this dress again and recommend it for anyone looking for a fast and easy summer dress. I would just have to make sure to pick a different fabric.