1954 Halter Dress

January's effort has been to make myself this dress.

I found some lovely dark navy cotton with a small and busy cream paisley pattern that I picked up for a song. (I'm trying to branch out beyond black, red and white!) It's really light and floaty - perfect for dancing in! I've faced it with some plain navy sheet-weight cotton.

The wide halter straps are really flattering and I like the modesty of the insert behind the sweetheart neckline. The bust and strap sections were quite fiddly but will be much easier when it comes to doing them again I think.

I've pretty much finished except for hemming and some finishing touches. I'm still trying to decide whether to add the featherbone stays the pattern calls for at the front, though it definitely needs the ones at the back to stop it rolling down...

One thing I did not expect was how true to the picture it would be! The insanely waspie waists of the illustration were merely artistic licence thought I - not so! Good job I'm not averse to a corset as the hip/waist/bust ratio is a bit extreme! I love a dramatic waistline as much as the next woman, but I will be modifying this for future incarnations of this dress.

I hope to finish it tomorrow and I'll post pics asap :)

Resolute

When I was about 13 I made a New Years resolution to never again make new years resolutions. This year I'm breaking it (it did pretty well!) and I'm making 3 resolutions.

1) Wear more silk. This also means sew more silk as my budget doesn't exactly allow for trips to Agent Provocateur every other week! On the few occaisions I have sewn with silk in the past I've run into a fair few problems with its tendancy to fray and it's light and floaty ways. It does also give me the opportunity to learn more about the different types too and I do so want to improve my textile knowledge.

2) Watch at least 1 classic b&w film a week. Ok, not massively sewing related, but I imagine I will be wanting to copy the odd design. I watched It's A Wonderful Life for the first time a few days ago and I just wanted to recreate every single outfit I saw! Please put any recommendations in the comments, I need to build a big 'to watch' list.

3) Make myself at least 1 garment a month. I need to find time to sew for myself too - and not just the hastily thrown together fancy dress things I'm always doing. Things like a dress, a corset (finally!), or even a petticoat.

It's going to be a pretty busy year for me! I'm managing a shop full-time now while still keeping the corset-making/seamstressing side going. I think it'll take me a while to get used to having to be at the shop all the time, but at least my lovely friend Dr Sid got me a handheld sewing machine for Christmas so I can still make progress between customers! I'm working on a bullet bra at the moment, it's a strange garment - I'll let you know how I get on!

Happy New Year everyone xxx