Wearables Sundress for HID W - almost finished. Update: finished!

Sacrificed one of my gauze shawls. The print looks like square tiles. Cut it in strips, shirred, aded some lace, ruffles.
Should have thought about the lace sooner, before shirring. Now on top of the dress there’s not enough space between shirred part and the lace. Not going to tear it apart though, the gauze will not survive such rough handling. It was already trying all kinds of tricks on me, including getting caught on the skin of my reasonably manicured fingers.
Under the shirred part next tier is not a true ruffle, shirring gathered the fabric enough. The bottom tier was gathered approximately 2:1. There’s no real pattern, added tier after tier on the fabric, sew the back seam last. Now the body part of the dress is ready.
Still some material left over. Started to make sleeves from it: aded lace, shirred 2 rows at both edges of the strip. Still needs a seam under arm. I don’t plan to sew the sleeve on the dress, it will remain detachable, fastened with a safety pin under arm. This way she can wear the dress as a ball gown with bare shoulders, put a crochet jacket on chilly summer evenings, or wear it more modest with long sleeves depending on occasion.

Sorry for the bad quality photos, I was so excited, had to take them even in bad lighting. This is the first time the doll tried on the dress. I promise better photos when it will be ready.

Model: Eve (Iplehouse HID W + DollClans Vezeto)
IMG_2524 by Ilona Lablaika-Williams, on Flickr
IMG_2527 by Ilona Lablaika-Williams, on Flickr
IMG_2505 by Ilona Lablaika-Williams, on Flickr
IMG_8590 by Ilona Lablaika-Williams, on Flickr
IMG_8591 by Ilona Lablaika-Williams, on Flickr
IMG_8593 by Ilona Lablaika-Williams, on Flickr

 

Thank you @JL_The_Lion!
I liked the material in the form of my shawl too, had some back and forth with myself as to who will have it - me or Eve. She won. I think she will claim some more of my stuff.

Yes, the sewing machine is very new for me too, apart from some mending of broken seams this is the first full blown project I make using it. The old one decided to retire after 40 years. A bit unusual, my muscle memory is looking for controls in different places. But I really like this one.

 

Yes! the presser foot lever is exactly what I'm complaining about! My old machine was a Singer knock off, before that I had my grandma's Singer, all mechanic, foot operated, black with golden sphinxes. Never seen any so splendid any more. Foot operated - yes, black and gold - yes. But not THAT.

Thank you!
For this dress I didn't have any pattern. Measured the doll's bust (32 cm), shirring needs twice as long fabric, so 64, my shawl was 70 wide, so that's what I had. Seams took all the excess. Shirred 8 rows. If you want lace on top like mine has, sew it on before shirring. If you look at the dress you see there's a blue lace about 2-3 cm below the shirred part. That's where the next tier is attached. But you don't really need to gather it in ruffle so just as well can leave wider strip. Lace, shirring, free part, then ruffle No2, lace at the bottom of tier No1, lace at the bottom of tier No2. When all the tiers are sewn together just 1 straight seam at the back. I was wiser when I did the sleeves, started with sewing on the lace, then shirred 2 rows. Looks better. Sleeves are not sewn to the dress, just pull them up, pin with a safety pin under the arm. Photos coming soon.

I have started another project - a Versailles style dress. That will take long time, right now I'm doing some fast fashion so that the doll has something to wear for summer holidays. Mentioned the Versailles dress because I do it from scratch, starting with making the basic pattern (the one that can be used to model every other clothing for this particular doll/person), have a look when I publish that.

 

Finished the dress and took the couple to a holiday:
IMG_2587 by Ilona Lablaika-Williams, on Flickr