Floral Pouffe Dress

I realized that I haven't posted anything sewing related since March! What a failure considering the title of the blog! XD

Also this is my 30th post, and I have gotten over 1000 page views! Thanks everyone! :D Thats 4 digits!!! And even though I'm sure at least 50 of those (if not more!) are mine, thanks for the other 950!

As a reward, you get to see the progress pics of the dress I made for my sister, Alex. Anyone remember this picture from my March update? Yeah, that one.

I finished the dress before I went to Europe, but I still haven't had a chance to do a proper photoshoot. I think I will wait a little bit until the weather is nicer so I can do it outside in a garden, surrounded by flowers. As a floral patterned dress it is quite appropriate for a spring photoshoot!

Here we go!

I started out with a rough of the bodice piece in a black broadcloth,
as I had limited amounts of good fabric to work with.

I was originally going to do a ruffled design with the pink fabric, but that
 got scrapped fairly early on.

I ended up going with a sleeker, simple, fitted bodice.

Don't know why this didn't get rotated, but this is my rough sketch of the
 dress. (And I think the first sketch to get uploaded to this blog. God
 I'm lazy...)

A problem that never managed to get fixed... sigh

Again using broadcloth to create a mock-up of
 pieces of the garment.

Tracing the pieces onto brown fabric.

This is brown, I know you can't tell...

Making sure none of the flowers are in awkward
 positions before proceeding with the cutting is
 always good. :D

I love this fabric. 

Drawing on the darts.

Somehow, at this point I realized my measurements had gotten lost in translation somewhere, and the bodice was too small. DX I had to make it again, but I decided to use the black broadcloth as lining, so it wasn't a total waste...

All sewn together.

Finishing the edges of the gold fabric.

The under skirt.

The pouffe.

Sewing the layers together was pretty confusing... especially in the
 dark. When I get my own work desk, I'm putting in really strong lights...

At this point, I decided to shorten the bodice in
 order to even out the proportions and make it
 look better.

This is where I ran into difficulty. D: Never having done a dress like this
 before, I was unprepared for the sheer amount of layers that ended up in one
 seam thanks to my inexperience. I had a heck of a time sewing through it,
 which led to more problems....

Meaning that I was unable to put in the zipper. DX So I had to call in the
 expert, aka Mum. And even she had difficulty with it. 

hmm... Still not completely satisfied,
 but as my first attempt at anything this
 complicated, I'd say it was pretty good.

Finished shots will come later this spring! Look forward to it!