I’m lucky to have a creative job and Thursday afternoons would usually find me in front of my computer making something from virtual materials, pixels and code. Yesterday though was different, I escaped from the office to sit Hannah’s ‘Alterations Afternoon’ class.
Before I go any further, here’s the link to Hannah’s workshop list. I had a great afternoon and learned so much. Hannah is a very patient teacher even when you manage to mess up a zip 3 times! Ahem, moving swiftly on.
So I decided to alter the pink psychedelic print dress as my project. The dress was very short, strapless and had a broken zip. I’d never worn it as a dress but bought and kept it because I thought it deserved a new lease of life, and now it has.
Before we started cutting and sewing Hannah fitted the skirt (still a dress) for me, marking where the waist should be and creating darts so that it fit me properly. I find it so motivating and inspiring to watch someone who really knows what they’re doing at work and Hannah knows dressmaking.
Most of my craft learning feels like a demystifying process and yesterday clarified not only techniques but reasons for doing things a certain way. Amongst many other things I learned how big a seam should be, what darts are for, when to use a concelaed zip and discovered the wonderful dressmakers ham! I’ve got to get me one of those.
Our bodies are not flat and two dimentional so we need to make our clothes fit a more rounded, person-shaped shape. This is obvious in hindsight but something I didn’t consider, being so hung up on sewing in straight lines!
My skirt is very nearly finished. I just need to complete the waistband and will show it when its done. How exciting!
I’m not going to give away too much because I would recommend sitting a class like Hannah’s first but I’ve added a few new things to the Resources page under ‘Dressmaking’.