Resuscitating Old Skills - Part 2

Remember this post "Resuscitating Old Skills" way back at the end of November last year?

It was an adventure that was for sure! Sewing is not like riding a bike after years of not having done so. Or perhaps it is in as much as you remember how to push the pedals but when it comes to the finer details such as changing gears on hills you have to stop & think about it.

All of the things that used to come naturally I had to stop & try to drag up through the fuzzy memory of time. The machine was the easy part, but all of those little tricks for a nice finish that once came so naturally eluded me. Shoot - a couple of times I even had to look at the pattern construction instructions & the last time did any garment sewing that was unheard of! Of course the instructions weren't a lot of help because some person had bought a pattern that was just the basic shape she needed & then gone & changed almost everything about it willy nilly, without a care in the world....and we'd bought chiffon. Slippery, slidey, super fine chiffon.

Very clever.

Still,  Gabriela's dress turned out fine in the end, even if I was hemming it in between everything else on the morning of the wedding. Unlike the pattern it was age appropriate & with a wee short sleeved bolero over it she looked super sweet.

I don't have any decent photo's of her wearing the dress yet, none that show the dress well anyway, but no doubt some will turn up at some point though. So for now here is one I snapped quickly.

This was the pattern I used as a base for the under dress. You can see why it was somewhat changed - she's 13, not 23!!. It seems there is a distinct lack of young teen patterns around & once girls start getting a bit of 'shape' you have to go straight for the adult patterns. I can see more pattern tampering in my future ;)