My New Dress!

I am so excited that I FINALLY managed to make myself a nice dress!  I used my Sure Fit Designs blueprint to make a dress based on New Look 6243.  I have always had trouble fitting commercial patterns to myself, and now with the help of my blueprint from SFD I can now sew for myself!

I didn't want to invest a lot of money in this dress because I wasn't sure I could really do it.  So the fabric is the Casa collection from JoAnn's and I bought it with a 60% coupon!  The dress is Casa crepe and the yoke is Casa chiffon.  I even used the Casa matching lining.  I was surprised how nice it actually was to work with and wear.  It certainly isn't silk crepe de chine, which I wanted to use for my lining, but it worked just fine and cost just a smidge.

I did underline the dress with silk organza, though.  I used the techniques I learned in the Crafty couture class by Susan Khalje and it was a pleasure to sew.  I beaded the seamlines on the front and back yoke as well as the seam lines on the waist band piece.

I also made a matching wrap using the Casa satin and this tutorial
Satin stole

I used 3 different glass bugle beads; dark plum, abalone, and amethyst.  It gave it just the right amount of bling.