I'll be honest, once I knew a few of the tricks about working with velvet like the pinning method and watching the pile direction, it wasn't all that bad! If you ever have a project in mind, I recommend giving it a go! I think the scariest part of the whole thing is just knowing how expensive the fabric is and being scared to make mistakes from that perspective haha
Oh! So I think that while having a seam allowance is generally a good idea, that if your outer bodice fit well, then that probably wasn't your problem... it would be that your layers stretched different amounts! This could either be that the fabrics themselves have different levels of stretchiness, or more likely: I think you didn't cut the lining on the diagonal! The diagonal (aka the bias) has more stretch, even on a woven fabric! It's great that you were able to fix it, even if it was a dodgy fix haha
Wow! I actually had to go back in to my video to confirm and you’re totally right! I didn’t cut the lining on the bias, I probably wasn’t even thinking about it because the reason I did it with the velvet was the pile, but that makes so much sense! Thanks for that, I’ll keep that in mind in the future :)
You made a beautiful dress! It looked beautiful at the party! You made a wearable velvet dress after only sewing for 8 months!!! You liked it, others loved it on you, don’t be so hard on yourself. You know the mistakes, and you learned from them. One other hint. Never hem a skirt before hanging it up for at least 24 hrs; especially a circle skirt. Fabric stretches differently on different bias cuts, and a circle skirt has them all! Beautiful job. I wouldn’t try to make a dress out of velvet, and I’ve been sewing for years. I recently finally sewed with lightweight silk for the first time (just a bias-cut cami,) and it has issues. I sewed with velvet once in my very beginner days, and let’s just say, that item was unusable! Beautiful work, and keep sewing!
Thank you so much! I will definitely be doing more research on letting the fabrics stretch, that advice is very helpful because I don't think I would've figured that out on my own (at least not anytime soon). Much appreciated! :)
i'm sorry that your dress didn't turn out exactly how you wanted, but it does look lovely in the end! especially with using organza as a lining. organza is made to make things fluffier (it's most commonly used for cheap petticoats, or sheer floofy sleeves), so i'd honestly be surprised if it *hadn't* caused problems with the fit of your bodice. the up side of that is that if you do decide you want to try to get it closer to your dream later down the line, just changing the lining fabric should help a fair bit. you did such a great job though, and tackling those fabrics at all is a daunting task!
The hardest lesson I learned (as far as pattern) label, label, label! Write the pattern, the piece, the seam allowance, everything. The more patterns you make, the more important labels become.
I think sewers should have merit badges. And I think you just earned be picking a challenging fabric and learning through a very challenging fabric. I remember picking a fabric that frayed whenever I looked at it! Nightmare! I would also like you say you looked amazing in it.
You did a great job! I've been self taught sewing for over a decade, and still struggle sometimes (often). Your mindset of learning frok everything is incredible In case someome is looking for tips, I'll put them below. Some channels that are great for general sewing are With Wendy, Retro Claude, Vincent Briggs, Bernadette Banner, and The Stitchery (may add more.) With Wendy and The Stitchery are more modern, while the other channels do a lot of historical sewing, which i find helpful for learning a wide variety of techniques for specific cases. Tips: one of the biggest things that I had to contend with is that hand sewing a ton is absolutely necessary. Finally just sitting down and learning how to handle long hand sewn seams (i have adhd so it really was Learning to just sit and do it), and hand finishing was the biggest level up I had in years. If you're making a lined piece, cut everything out at once, and do all of the steps in parallel. (Like, cut it out in one go, pin everything you can on both at the same time, same with sewing, etc.) If you're drafting a pattern, this lets you figure out what needs to be sewn in what order. This kind of "batching" was really cemented for me by Retro Claude, who is a professional costumer. She discusses it in relation to disability accommodation, but I find it helps me keep things in order even when I'm feeling well, so it could be worth a try for anyone. For hemming and finishing, you may like hem tape/single fold bias tape. I find it's easy to use on a machine if you aren't up to hand sewing, and it looks super clean when you are. You can also use a contrast fabric for some really pretty hidden additions! I made a otherwise very plain black dress, but added a hem tape with constellation print fabric that peeks out when I move quickly, and finished all of the interior seams with it too.
Thank you! These are super helpful tips! I feel like I’ve already immensely levelled up just by reading all these comments! And I appreciate youre point about the hand sewing, I also have ADHD, and knowing you’ve found a way to get yourself to do it gives me more hope on getting myself to do it too!
The dress came out lovely. In future use a lining fabric that you like the feel of next to your skin. Preferably one with the same kind of flowiness as the outer fabric. I recommend cotton or a polycotton for lining. I. Love what you did and look forward to seeing how you progress on your sewing journey xxx
The only time I remember ever using organza was to flat line the bodice of bridesmaids dresses for a niece’s wedding about 20 years ago. It definitely was not fun, but it did help to stabilize the fashion fabric layer. If I remember correctly the dresses were actually lined with another layer to make them nice and smooth against the body. Your dress turned out beautifully. You learned a lot from this dress and you can use what you learned on the next project.
I'm looking to get into sewing and watching newer sewers has helped me so much! Please continue to share your sewing journey with us. It really does help. ❤
Thank you so much! I really appreciate the encouragement :) Being a newbie online can be daunting, but showing the struggle is so worth it when it helps other people! And sewing is so much fun, I'm so happy to get to connect with other people who are giving it a go :) Best of luck in whatever projects you're taking on right now!
you did AMAZING!! i've been sewing for over a decade now and would consider myself very experienced, but literally last week i 'messed up' the back of a dress because i was working with a new pattern and a new slippery mesh. but i gained new skills, just like you. i'm really glad you understand that it is such a journey of learning, but i don't think you should be disappointed! this dress turned out AMAZING and you picked some really difficult fabrics and a difficult final product as well. sewing is a journey of always always learning, and yep, it's a lot of trial by fire - i was never 'cringing' at this video, only shaking my head like "yep, been there"- because we all have. every experienced sewist ever has made tons of projects and tons of mistakes and that's ok! some unsolicited advice: do some research on bias and different types of fabric & fiber and their properties when sewing. for any skirt, but especially one with bias cuts like the side of the circle skirt, it is useful to 'hang' it (whether on a dress form or just from a clip hanger) so that it stretches from its own weight (overnight at least, ideally a few days-week). then, you can cut it to be even, AFTER it has done the natural stretching. that's why your hem changed and you had to re-hem it. this is especially true for heavier fabrics like velvet. some more unsolicited advice: you seem disappointed that the inside isn't finished perfectly, but honestly, i've seen beautiful gowns from the 1800s in person and many of THOSE don't have finished perfect seams. there was tons of hand stitching and fixing and cinching and adjustments and piecing. we have this idea that our clothes should look like robots made them, when they are a labor of human love and hands.
Wow, thank you so much, what a wonderful comment ❤️ I so appreciate the encouragement and how much support this has received. You're so right about focusing on the human element, and now I really want to try to find a vintage clothing exhibit to go to! I will also totally be looking in to what you're mentioning about bias, I think I've heard others talk about it, but I never really grasped what was going on. This is super helpful and encouraging!
@the_renjamin i’m glad!! i really find there is so much to learn from historical sewing techniques, even if your goal is not strictly historical sewing. i just find that videos about it explain the “building blocks” of sewing and fabric more.
Kudos for setting perfect eyelets in velvet though! But most of all, I applaud the honest recap, because sometimes I feel creators online are pressured into a toxic positivity that is not real and not useful (imho): way better to face our disappointing moments and not shoo them away and pretend all is good all the time. 💖
Thank you! I completely agree, I started sewing because I loved watching other people's sewing videos, but I couldn't wrap my head around how everything always seemed to just "work out". It wasn't until I recently learned that Micarah Tewers makes prototypes of her projects before making her videos that I finally understood that everyone faces trial and error and sewing doesn't happen by pure magic. That's the whole reason I wanted to start making videos, I wanted to participate, but I also wanted to connect with other beginners who are facing the realities of learning a new skill. We can all muddle through together! :)
Thank you! Personal standards can be very difficult to live up to, but I also think it's important to challenge ourselves! The trick I think (that is so much easier said than done) is to try to calm down that bully voice in our heads and be gentle with ourselves through the learning process, and to focus on that learning something new should always be at least a bit of fun too! :)
For my fortieth birthday party I made a red velvet empire line dress with matching long gloves( don't ever try making velvet gloves they are a NIGHTMARE!!!) , even though I had 30 years experience of sewing at that point, I still found it hard to put together. So don't be hard on yourself. Your dress looks lovely . ❤
I've been sewing for awhile now and absolutely no cringing here at all. I LOVE THIS! I'm sorry it was a nightmare experience for you. I think your perspective on making mistakes and learning is fabulous, I agree, although it took me a lot of time to be okay with making mistakes and sharing them. I have been sewing for several years and I STILL make mistakes ALL the time. Because I'm always learning. I never want to stop learning. Your dress looks so freakin' beautiful. That color though! Gorgeous 🤩
Wow thank you for such a wonderful comment! 😊 That’s genuinely so reassuring to hear. Appreciating the value of making mistakes is always so much easier said than done haha
I want to salute your bravery. Slim straps on the shoulders with this fabric, square neckline, lining, the materials you picked. And it looks great! You persevered! I once put a dress together where I had to rip the zipper 4 times because I kept on putting it in wrong. I was frustrated with previous steps and did not take time to look and see what I was doing. And after all that pain I destroyed the material and it was lost... I learned that when doing a difficult project I do not have a deadline and can put it away for some time throughout the project. To think, take a breath. Or else my disappointment will ruin it. Good on you: you did it!! awesome.
Wow yeah, I think I’ve been close to moments like that before, losing the dress must have been devastating after all the work, but I’m so glad you were also able to find the take always from it because it can be so challenging sometimes. Thank you for the encouragement!
Please don’t sell yourself short! The dress is quite nice. And yes, you will probably re-make the dress in a few years. The fact that you can look at it, see the mistakes for what they are - learning opportunities - is a great sign for your sewing future. The other thing that is important for your sewing future is the amazing fact that you have the sense of adventure (wrong word, but I can’t think of the correct word right now) to just go for it - pattern or not - just your dream! I won’t give suggestions, because you don’t need them - you’ll figure it out on your own! The things you learned just doing this one thing are things that set you on your way for life! When I was 17, I set out on my life journey, from one Coast to the other - with nothing but a hope and a dream. And not enough sense to be afraid of setting out on my own! I just went for it - one foot in front of the other - this was in the very early 1980’s. And I never regretted a thing. So I look at you with this dress - and it takes me right back - you have that same thing - that won’t stop you, won’t keep you back! From here on out, each dress will be better, and you will add more knowledge and understanding, and more complicated steps, and then one day, you will realize that there is an easier way to- like leaving out the top lining, or something wild, and the world will start coming to you for your creations, and young sewers will be asking you to help them learn!
Don’t be so hard on yourself, you jumped in the deep end both feet first (something I have a habit of doing all the time 😂) I think you did an amazing job, especially with fabric you’ve never used and a self drafted pattern. We are or own biggest critics and sometimes forget all the new things we were brave enough to try and how much we learnt from them. I’ve been sewing over 40 years and still make mistakes and learn new things every day. Anyone who says they never or don’t make mistakes is definitely telling a few fibs 😉 My biggest oops was forgetting to add seam allowance to a dress pattern when I cut it out and then discovering I needed to add a 3” panel each side so it would fit. I was mortified and thought everyone would know I’d messed it up. My daughter’s wedding was great and nobody noticed, just asked where I bought my lovely dress 😊 I’ve subscribed and look forward to seeing your sewing journey progress. PS, invest in a walking foot, a lifesaver when sewing stretchy fabric and fabrics of different weights ❤
This turned out really pretty on you! I don't know you, but I am so proud of you! Doing and making can be a learning process. Learning is sometimes painful but it is well worth it. You rock for being brave enough to do this and film it. Not knowing what scares everyone else can make it so we don't know that folks think we should be afraid to do the thing. I started out making my own patterns because my anxiety made me think that using a pattern was more scary because there were rules I could "mess up." Velvet is so tricky to work with. it moves while sewing it, fights against itself even when fully hand basted. Also, bias cut fabrics stretch unevenly. For circle skirts, it helps to have it hang for up to a week so it can stretch before it is hemmed.
I've been sewing for 25 years, and I stay away from velvet! A couple pointers for you: anything on a bias, like a dress should be hung over the night before being hemmed to allow the fabric to settle; you can try using bias tape for the neckline to keep it from the straps from coming inward; try using materials closest to your fashion fabric as your mockup fabrics. You did a great job. In the end, it looked amazing! I made a dress out of velvet early on and swore I would never do it again. Just keep sewing, and you will continue to learn from every project. I still end up seem ripping on every project I make!
I'm also a beginner sewist and I didn't want to learn how to hem a (heavy cotton) circle skirt so I just cut out a facing from some quilting cotton, sewed it right sides together, clipped it, and flipped it! The idea of rolling something that is bigger than the space you're trying to roll it into is scary haha. It also gave it a nice thick hem which looked proportional with my large print pattern and possibly gave it a bit more structure... Anyway facings are a handy alternative to a full lining imo
Wow, the dress looked so beautiful at the party! If I could suggest 1 thing: before apologizing for something, ask yourself - would a mediocre white man be sorry about this? If the answer is "probably not", then no apology necessary.
You look stunning in the dress ❤❤❤ velvet in fact is not the easiest to work with. But my assumption would be that the organza was the culprit. The good thing: The dress looks super cute, the pleats look so good and the lining can be altered at some point in the future. Also having a garment a bit bigger is always preferable because it's easy to fix. Don't be frustrated, learning not only takes time, it's also a nerve-wracking process. Every seamstress knows that - so no need to be sad. Just keep going, things get easier with time. Love the dress, honestly!
Keep going, is so worth it. Velvet is so hard to work with but so classy. When I work with velvet crepe. I always think of that seamstress at YSL who spent hours and hours on a silk velvet dress and when she shown her dress to the designer, Mr Saint Laurent, simply said, No, it doesn't work, it looks like and old curtain... she cried...and worked on another dress. This is to say, if you love what you do, go for it, it is always worth it ❤
I really appreciate the openness and honesty from your video. Your red velvet dress turned out wonderfully in the end and you really look happy in it. I also took on the challenge of making a velvet Christmas dress, this was my first time using a sewing machine and sewing a garment. Unfortunately I did not finish it in time for the holiday and still have not finished it. My seems were not matching up so I kept seem ripping my skirt to bodice, I worked on it 15 hours on Christmas Eve. I am definitely burnt out. But I cannot wait to finish my little vogue S-4738 made from olive green velvet curtains. It was a great first garment, it was just a lot having 14 pieces to sew together for my first garment.
Thank you so much! Honestly, not hitting your own deadlines can be really deflating. I finished my dress before the party thankfully, but I actually almost didn’t post this video because I didn’t finish the edit before Christmas and thought it wouldn’t matter afterwards. But it is so worth it to see it through anyway if you can, it feels good when you know you made it to the other side! And the olive green garment sounds fabulous!
re: the thread tension issue - that shit happens to me every time I change the ckind of thread I'm using, the kind of stitch I'm using the kind of fabric I'm using. Best I can say is just take a couple of bits of the project fabric and give it a test sew to make sure the machine isn't going to start chewing it up. I've lowkey just made one snip in the middle of the problem area and stretched it to un-ruffle it and gone over it again.
re: pleating. you can try doing some math. (Waist edge size - desired waist) = fabric you can use for pleating. If you wanted like a couple of big box pleats you can divide the pleat fabric buy the number of pleats and now you know how deep the pleat can be.
When you have more experience you can always go back and alter it :) Thread tension is the bane of my sewing experience. That and the timing. It's more expensive to have my machine repaired than it is to buy a new one. At least locally. So I took it apart myself. Its a finicky pain in the butt. Do not recommend lol And a tip, linings are always slippery so they don't stick to you or the outer fabric. The organza was a good choice for giving volume since it's stiff, but I would've put something slippery underneath that. Just for comfort :)
The thing about a lot of projects that are so desperately flawed to us the creators is that, to an untrained eye (aka like everyone bc so few people sew these days) they're almost completely unnoticeable. I've fucked up my tension SO many times while sewing things (honestly i don't know how tension ALWAYS seems to get fucked up), the first (and at this point, only) time i sewed with satin my fabric slipped around so much that i ended up with a center back so wavy that there's a giant bubble in the back whenever I put it on, god knows ive fucked up on my linings and facings like a million times----and yet whenever I wear any of the dresses I made myself I get just SO many compliments. Even pinterest photos are taken from a distance---- we just despair bc we're so upclose and personal (and we know what the insides look like lmao)
You are doing GREAT! The dress is beautiful! Always remember, if someone is close enough to you to see the sewing mistakes, they won't care. And if they care, they don't need to be that close to you 😂 Even after decades if sewing, I'm STILL too chicken to sew with velvet!
A very pretty dress, it's always us that sees the mistakes but others just see you in a cute dress, two things 1 the 3 foot rule= if it looks good from 3 feet way, that's good enough. 2 good, better, best= good is a yes, better is from practice, best is an ideal not a reality. You show up and did the thing, have you looked inside your premade clothes? ❤
You did great. But some unasked for advice….stitch ripping is apart of sewing just as much as cutting fabric. The more you look at it as a part instead of having to do it because of a mistake the better you will be. It is MUCH easier to rip out a 12-14 inch stitch and be 100% happy with the end result then to wish you had of done it later on. It is still fixable. Like you said, you have to make mistakes to learn and get better. The dress is still very beautiful ❤
I am a very amateur sewer and am only 11 minutes into the video so far but with a circle skirt, I don't think you technically cut it on the bias because when it drapes, the grain line shifts at every point in the skirt. i.e. if you draw a bunch of parallel lines on your circle when flat, once it's assembled into a skirt those lines will vary in direction to the waistband/drape of the skirt. So I don't think there's anything you could have done to make sure that the direction of the fabric at the bodice matches the direction of the fabric at the adjoining skirt piece, besides sewing 2 half circle skirts together instead of one big circle
Good to know! That does make sense. Luckily I found that cutting the bodice pieces on a diagonal did work in this instance (at least to any obvious visual degree). Thankfully I don’t think I’ll have to do too many more velvet circle skirts in the future haha!
If you’re having a problem with not adding your seam allowance, that would make your garment smaller, not larger. Think about it. You would be cutting out something smaller than if you had put in the seam allowance, so the garment would be too small. I think your explanation about the puckering with the inside being smaller than the outside is possibly true.
I also have a velvet dress I've been wanting to do and haven't had the courage to touch the fabric, so mad props to you for going for it!! and it looked lovely, even if it didn't come out the exact way you wanted. congrats for going for it!
oh boy, the *noise* I made when you pulled out that crystal organza -_- please dont let this scare you away from organza! polyester organza is just uncommonly monsterous. silk or cotton is an amazing workhorse fabric that gives so much body and loft to things, 100% something I'd underline a velvet skirt with. next time look for a dull or matte finish organza and expect anythig shiny to be a beast. also, it's totally possible to sew without adding seam allowances to your pattern! it just involves a completely different technique of tracing the patterns out in chalk and pinning them together along the chalk line, completely ignoring the cut edges. it's how every theater and opera I've ever made costumes for sews. it's super useful for costumes that have to be altered-restored-altered-restored ad nauseum for the next 30 years, its just not really taught outside of that context. I actually prefer sewing that way, I feel it's much more precise but it is slower. at the end of the day you made a lovely dress out of some difficult fabrics, you should be incredibly proud of yourself.
My sewing experience is primarily on two old Bernina machines, but I have used some others, too. None of them have threaded their needles that way, though, is that normal for Singer machines? I am preparing to buy a new machine this year, probably, so I need to know. Second edit (the first one was due to hitting the enter button before finishing): Velvet is such a heavy fabric, yet not very structurally strong, so I would have felt compelled to add boning channels to the top to make sure it would lay the way it is supposed to. It surprised me to see the skirt behaving that well, since the thread direction of the fabric tends to be very visible in velvet, so the parts not parallell to the side thingy will tend to look very different than expected (I vividly remember sewing in one panel of my first velvet skirt upside down, and it was extremely visible, causing me to have to rip the seams and make a new one, as it was cut the wrong way, too, so it would have been wider at the top than at the bottom). Thinking about sewing a velvet skirt with my current sewing experience, I would probably add some boning channels to the skirt seams, too, and use them to insert very thin and flexible bones like artificial whalebone or even simply some fishing line. Hm, fishing line inserted in vertical seams could be very useful, especially if you were after a slightly scalloped bottom, like on an over-skirt, ballgown style... Which reminds me of how GORGEOUS your lining fabric is! That stuff deserves to be an outer layer on top of a heavy fabric, perhaps even of a different colour, to make the shimmer really pop! The next time you buy fabric for lining, go for a bit of integrity, so the fabric will help steer the outside fabric to hang in the right direction, like the good old-fashioned white petticoats, but in a colour of your choice, since we now have that luxury. Learn more by googling, this was my first search result for "petticoat fabric": historicalsewing.com/fabrics-to-make-pretty-petticoats
Thanks for these ideas! And I agree, the lining fabric (which I have learned via the comments is crystal organza and should NEVER be used as a lining fabric 😂) would be so pretty as an outer layer! Also, regarding the threading of the machine, I’m not 100% sure. Mine is a pretty old singer, it was my mums first machine and she gifted it to me when she got a new one. I will say though, there’s a little bar above the needle that the thread is supposed to go through, but sometimes it slips out and I don’t notice. I spotted a few clips while editing where it had slipped out of the bar, which might be why it looks a bit funny. But if you’re considering a Singer, I’d look up how the modern machines are threaded, and also one thing to know, Singer parts are proprietary, so you can’t use third party feet and stuff. But that being said, there’s lots of part available for modern machines, just not mine 🙃
Velvet is evil. I would suggect 1. Get a walking foot. It's transformed sewing tricky fabric for me aand it took me 11 years to finally get one. 2. Use bias tape to hem your circle skirt. 3. Hand baste/tack before you sew seams. Not only is it opportunity to test the fit it makes the fabric less likely to slip when sewing.
I’m sorry to tell you that the only other method for making pleats is math. It’s up to you whether the pinning it over and over or math is the least frightening. Me, I would do the math, but everybody is different.
Haha I had a feeling that would be the answer. For now I’ll probably stick to my trial and error ways, but I will definitely look into to the math if I ever make something really important!
I am OBSESSED with how you styled this dress, definitely looks like a Pinterest image to me lol (I would pin it). Doing crafts on the floor while watching Jenna Marbles is just the basic girly experience; I'm glad we're all the same. I'm proud of you, stranger. It was a challenging project, but you did amazing. (Also, I'm side-eying my pattern collection beside me, all of them without seam allowances, and sweating a little bit. And I've been sewing for almost a decade.... we'll cross this bridge when we get to it. Thanks for the tip!)
This is such an awesome comment 😂 I love that you spotted the Jenna Marbles video. Thank you so much though! And just know you will not be alone in the agony of taking the time to build seam allowance in the patterns haha
The dress is good, one tip the lining fabric you chose wasn't the correct one, organza is not a fabric you normally use for lining it has body and you could have use it for a petycoat to give more fullnes to the skirt.But keep going you are doing a good job, it was difficult project with difficult fabrics. Maybe next time you might consider using facings instead of linning so it would be less stressfull
You’re 100% right! Picking what to line things with has been a major struggle for me that I definitely need to look in to more. But thank you! And I will definitely look in to facings!
You keep saying your skirt was double the correct size, but if you were supposed to divide by pi that’s 3.14. That means your skirt was triple the correct size. I just thought I’d let you know that for reference in case you wanted to make another one.
@@the_renjaminThere are websites for circle skirt calculators that will do all the math for you. It does involve pi because you are looking for the radius. I always just go to an online calculator to help me. The Mood Fabric one is my favorite.
you could have done panels for the skirt hemming 1sr???????What??????? hemming is usually the last step, cutting velvet on a diagonal?????????/ you atr kidding.
I am currently working on a dress that is HUMBLING me. I have already put it together and fully taken it apart once... Maybe twice depending on how you count 🫠 Kudos for keeping on with the project :) And I feel the same way: we may come out on the other side with a pretty dress, but we 100% come out wiser You looked great either way💃🏻😊
Extra comment to say that usually when doing most pleats you want 3x waist measurement. So, not dividing by pi your circle skirt ended up making it just right 😅 Happy little accidents ❤
![Making 3 Fantasy Leaf Bolero Vests [CC]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ES51JzOh10A/mqdefault.jpg)
Velvet is terrifying to sew with. Organza is also a pain to sew with. You did wonderful! The dress is amazing!
Thank you!
Prop to you for sewing with velvet as a new sewer. I’ve been sewing for over 50 years and still haven’t the courage.
I'll be honest, once I knew a few of the tricks about working with velvet like the pinning method and watching the pile direction, it wasn't all that bad! If you ever have a project in mind, I recommend giving it a go! I think the scariest part of the whole thing is just knowing how expensive the fabric is and being scared to make mistakes from that perspective haha
Oh! So I think that while having a seam allowance is generally a good idea, that if your outer bodice fit well, then that probably wasn't your problem... it would be that your layers stretched different amounts! This could either be that the fabrics themselves have different levels of stretchiness, or more likely: I think you didn't cut the lining on the diagonal! The diagonal (aka the bias) has more stretch, even on a woven fabric!
It's great that you were able to fix it, even if it was a dodgy fix haha
Wow! I actually had to go back in to my video to confirm and you’re totally right! I didn’t cut the lining on the bias, I probably wasn’t even thinking about it because the reason I did it with the velvet was the pile, but that makes so much sense! Thanks for that, I’ll keep that in mind in the future :)
You made a beautiful dress! It looked beautiful at the party! You made a wearable velvet dress after only sewing for 8 months!!! You liked it, others loved it on you, don’t be so hard on yourself. You know the mistakes, and you learned from them. One other hint. Never hem a skirt before hanging it up for at least 24 hrs; especially a circle skirt. Fabric stretches differently on different bias cuts, and a circle skirt has them all! Beautiful job. I wouldn’t try to make a dress out of velvet, and I’ve been sewing for years. I recently finally sewed with lightweight silk for the first time (just a bias-cut cami,) and it has issues. I sewed with velvet once in my very beginner days, and let’s just say, that item was unusable! Beautiful work, and keep sewing!
Thank you so much! I will definitely be doing more research on letting the fabrics stretch, that advice is very helpful because I don't think I would've figured that out on my own (at least not anytime soon). Much appreciated! :)
I made 6 ill fitting pants before i made 1 good pair. Its really nice to see others struggling. Its part of learning a great skill.
That is incredibly relatable 😂 If this comment section is a testament to anything, it's that we are all totally in this together!
@@sempi8159 Even my grandmother who sewed her whole life swore off of sewing pants.
i'm sorry that your dress didn't turn out exactly how you wanted, but it does look lovely in the end! especially with using organza as a lining. organza is made to make things fluffier (it's most commonly used for cheap petticoats, or sheer floofy sleeves), so i'd honestly be surprised if it *hadn't* caused problems with the fit of your bodice. the up side of that is that if you do decide you want to try to get it closer to your dream later down the line, just changing the lining fabric should help a fair bit. you did such a great job though, and tackling those fabrics at all is a daunting task!
The hardest lesson I learned (as far as pattern) label, label, label! Write the pattern, the piece, the seam allowance, everything. The more patterns you make, the more important labels become.
That makes so much sense!
I think sewers should have merit badges. And I think you just earned be picking a challenging fabric and learning through a very challenging fabric. I remember picking a fabric that frayed whenever I looked at it! Nightmare! I would also like you say you looked amazing in it.
very bold project for a newer sewer. It looks fine....really.
You did a great job! I've been self taught sewing for over a decade, and still struggle sometimes (often). Your mindset of learning frok everything is incredible
In case someome is looking for tips, I'll put them below. Some channels that are great for general sewing are With Wendy, Retro Claude, Vincent Briggs, Bernadette Banner, and The Stitchery (may add more.) With Wendy and The Stitchery are more modern, while the other channels do a lot of historical sewing, which i find helpful for learning a wide variety of techniques for specific cases.
Tips: one of the biggest things that I had to contend with is that hand sewing a ton is absolutely necessary. Finally just sitting down and learning how to handle long hand sewn seams (i have adhd so it really was Learning to just sit and do it), and hand finishing was the biggest level up I had in years.
If you're making a lined piece, cut everything out at once, and do all of the steps in parallel. (Like, cut it out in one go, pin everything you can on both at the same time, same with sewing, etc.) If you're drafting a pattern, this lets you figure out what needs to be sewn in what order. This kind of "batching" was really cemented for me by Retro Claude, who is a professional costumer. She discusses it in relation to disability accommodation, but I find it helps me keep things in order even when I'm feeling well, so it could be worth a try for anyone.
For hemming and finishing, you may like hem tape/single fold bias tape. I find it's easy to use on a machine if you aren't up to hand sewing, and it looks super clean when you are. You can also use a contrast fabric for some really pretty hidden additions! I made a otherwise very plain black dress, but added a hem tape with constellation print fabric that peeks out when I move quickly, and finished all of the interior seams with it too.
Thank you! These are super helpful tips! I feel like I’ve already immensely levelled up just by reading all these comments! And I appreciate youre point about the hand sewing, I also have ADHD, and knowing you’ve found a way to get yourself to do it gives me more hope on getting myself to do it too!
The dress came out lovely. In future use a lining fabric that you like the feel of next to your skin. Preferably one with the same kind of flowiness as the outer fabric. I recommend cotton or a polycotton for lining. I. Love what you did and look forward to seeing how you progress on your sewing journey xxx
The only time I remember ever using organza was to flat line the bodice of bridesmaids dresses for a niece’s wedding about 20 years ago. It definitely was not fun, but it did help to stabilize the fashion fabric layer. If I remember correctly the dresses were actually lined with another layer to make them nice and smooth against the body.
Your dress turned out beautifully. You learned a lot from this dress and you can use what you learned on the next project.
I'm looking to get into sewing and watching newer sewers has helped me so much! Please continue to share your sewing journey with us. It really does help. ❤
Thank you so much! I really appreciate the encouragement :) Being a newbie online can be daunting, but showing the struggle is so worth it when it helps other people! And sewing is so much fun, I'm so happy to get to connect with other people who are giving it a go :) Best of luck in whatever projects you're taking on right now!
you did AMAZING!! i've been sewing for over a decade now and would consider myself very experienced, but literally last week i 'messed up' the back of a dress because i was working with a new pattern and a new slippery mesh. but i gained new skills, just like you. i'm really glad you understand that it is such a journey of learning, but i don't think you should be disappointed! this dress turned out AMAZING and you picked some really difficult fabrics and a difficult final product as well. sewing is a journey of always always learning, and yep, it's a lot of trial by fire - i was never 'cringing' at this video, only shaking my head like "yep, been there"- because we all have. every experienced sewist ever has made tons of projects and tons of mistakes and that's ok!
some unsolicited advice: do some research on bias and different types of fabric & fiber and their properties when sewing. for any skirt, but especially one with bias cuts like the side of the circle skirt, it is useful to 'hang' it (whether on a dress form or just from a clip hanger) so that it stretches from its own weight (overnight at least, ideally a few days-week). then, you can cut it to be even, AFTER it has done the natural stretching. that's why your hem changed and you had to re-hem it. this is especially true for heavier fabrics like velvet.
some more unsolicited advice: you seem disappointed that the inside isn't finished perfectly, but honestly, i've seen beautiful gowns from the 1800s in person and many of THOSE don't have finished perfect seams. there was tons of hand stitching and fixing and cinching and adjustments and piecing. we have this idea that our clothes should look like robots made them, when they are a labor of human love and hands.
Wow, thank you so much, what a wonderful comment ❤️ I so appreciate the encouragement and how much support this has received. You're so right about focusing on the human element, and now I really want to try to find a vintage clothing exhibit to go to! I will also totally be looking in to what you're mentioning about bias, I think I've heard others talk about it, but I never really grasped what was going on. This is super helpful and encouraging!
@the_renjamin i’m glad!! i really find there is so much to learn from historical sewing techniques, even if your goal is not strictly historical sewing. i just find that videos about it explain the “building blocks” of sewing and fabric more.
Kudos for setting perfect eyelets in velvet though! But most of all, I applaud the honest recap, because sometimes I feel creators online are pressured into a toxic positivity that is not real and not useful (imho): way better to face our disappointing moments and not shoo them away and pretend all is good all the time. 💖
Thank you! I completely agree, I started sewing because I loved watching other people's sewing videos, but I couldn't wrap my head around how everything always seemed to just "work out". It wasn't until I recently learned that Micarah Tewers makes prototypes of her projects before making her videos that I finally understood that everyone faces trial and error and sewing doesn't happen by pure magic. That's the whole reason I wanted to start making videos, I wanted to participate, but I also wanted to connect with other beginners who are facing the realities of learning a new skill. We can all muddle through together! :)
As a novice myself, I really resonate with what you are saying about having a standard a wanting to keep up with that standard❤️
Thank you! Personal standards can be very difficult to live up to, but I also think it's important to challenge ourselves! The trick I think (that is so much easier said than done) is to try to calm down that bully voice in our heads and be gentle with ourselves through the learning process, and to focus on that learning something new should always be at least a bit of fun too! :)
For my fortieth birthday party I made a red velvet empire line dress with matching long gloves( don't ever try making velvet gloves they are a NIGHTMARE!!!) , even though I had 30 years experience of sewing at that point, I still found it hard to put together. So don't be hard on yourself. Your dress looks lovely . ❤
Thank you so much! And wow! That matching set sounds fabulous but velvet gloves sounds like me worst nightmare 😂
I've been sewing for awhile now and absolutely no cringing here at all. I LOVE THIS! I'm sorry it was a nightmare experience for you. I think your perspective on making mistakes and learning is fabulous, I agree, although it took me a lot of time to be okay with making mistakes and sharing them. I have been sewing for several years and I STILL make mistakes ALL the time. Because I'm always learning. I never want to stop learning. Your dress looks so freakin' beautiful. That color though! Gorgeous 🤩
Wow thank you for such a wonderful comment! 😊 That’s genuinely so reassuring to hear. Appreciating the value of making mistakes is always so much easier said than done haha
I want to salute your bravery. Slim straps on the shoulders with this fabric, square neckline, lining, the materials you picked. And it looks great! You persevered! I once put a dress together where I had to rip the zipper 4 times because I kept on putting it in wrong. I was frustrated with previous steps and did not take time to look and see what I was doing. And after all that pain I destroyed the material and it was lost... I learned that when doing a difficult project I do not have a deadline and can put it away for some time throughout the project. To think, take a breath. Or else my disappointment will ruin it. Good on you: you did it!! awesome.
Wow yeah, I think I’ve been close to moments like that before, losing the dress must have been devastating after all the work, but I’m so glad you were also able to find the take always from it because it can be so challenging sometimes. Thank you for the encouragement!
Please don’t sell yourself short! The dress is quite nice. And yes, you will probably re-make the dress in a few years. The fact that you can look at it, see the mistakes for what they are - learning opportunities - is a great sign for your sewing future. The other thing that is important for your sewing future is the amazing fact that you have the sense of adventure (wrong word, but I can’t think of the correct word right now) to just go for it - pattern or not - just your dream! I won’t give suggestions, because you don’t need them - you’ll figure it out on your own! The things you learned just doing this one thing are things that set you on your way for life! When I was 17, I set out on my life journey, from one Coast to the other - with nothing but a hope and a dream. And not enough sense to be afraid of setting out on my own! I just went for it - one foot in front of the other - this was in the very early 1980’s. And I never regretted a thing. So I look at you with this dress - and it takes me right back - you have that same thing - that won’t stop you, won’t keep you back! From here on out, each dress will be better, and you will add more knowledge and understanding, and more complicated steps, and then one day, you will realize that there is an easier way to- like leaving out the top lining, or something wild, and the world will start coming to you for your creations, and young sewers will be asking you to help them learn!
Oh my goodness thank you, thats so lovely of you to say! That one went straight to my heart 🥹❤️
Oh! And basting is your best friend!!! Practice it, you will see how much it really really does help!!
Don’t be so hard on yourself, you jumped in the deep end both feet first (something I have a habit of doing all the time 😂) I think you did an amazing job, especially with fabric you’ve never used and a self drafted pattern. We are or own biggest critics and sometimes forget all the new things we were brave enough to try and how much we learnt from them.
I’ve been sewing over 40 years and still make mistakes and learn new things every day. Anyone who says they never or don’t make mistakes is definitely telling a few fibs 😉 My biggest oops was forgetting to add seam allowance to a dress pattern when I cut it out and then discovering I needed to add a 3” panel each side so it would fit. I was mortified and thought everyone would know I’d messed it up. My daughter’s wedding was great and nobody noticed, just asked where I bought my lovely dress 😊
I’ve subscribed and look forward to seeing your sewing journey progress.
PS, invest in a walking foot, a lifesaver when sewing stretchy fabric and fabrics of different weights ❤
Thank you! You’re so right, no one ever really notices in the end. Thank you so much for the support! It means a lot 🫶
When I saw the title, I thought it was going to be so much worse 😬 Glad it turned out pretty well! It looks beautiful ❤
This turned out really pretty on you! I don't know you, but I am so proud of you! Doing and making can be a learning process. Learning is sometimes painful but it is well worth it. You rock for being brave enough to do this and film it. Not knowing what scares everyone else can make it so we don't know that folks think we should be afraid to do the thing.
I started out making my own patterns because my anxiety made me think that using a pattern was more scary because there were rules I could "mess up."
Velvet is so tricky to work with. it moves while sewing it, fights against itself even when fully hand basted. Also, bias cut fabrics stretch unevenly. For circle skirts, it helps to have it hang for up to a week so it can stretch before it is hemmed.
I've been sewing for 25 years, and I stay away from velvet! A couple pointers for you: anything on a bias, like a dress should be hung over the night before being hemmed to allow the fabric to settle; you can try using bias tape for the neckline to keep it from the straps from coming inward; try using materials closest to your fashion fabric as your mockup fabrics. You did a great job. In the end, it looked amazing! I made a dress out of velvet early on and swore I would never do it again. Just keep sewing, and you will continue to learn from every project. I still end up seem ripping on every project I make!
I'm also a beginner sewist and I didn't want to learn how to hem a (heavy cotton) circle skirt so I just cut out a facing from some quilting cotton, sewed it right sides together, clipped it, and flipped it! The idea of rolling something that is bigger than the space you're trying to roll it into is scary haha. It also gave it a nice thick hem which looked proportional with my large print pattern and possibly gave it a bit more structure... Anyway facings are a handy alternative to a full lining imo
Bias binding is one of my favorite ways to hem anything with a curved hem!
It was beautiful. We need to be kinder to yourself.
Wow, the dress looked so beautiful at the party!
If I could suggest 1 thing: before apologizing for something, ask yourself - would a mediocre white man be sorry about this? If the answer is "probably not", then no apology necessary.
😂 noted, I will consider this in the future lol
You look stunning in the dress ❤❤❤ velvet in fact is not the easiest to work with. But my assumption would be that the organza was the culprit. The good thing: The dress looks super cute, the pleats look so good and the lining can be altered at some point in the future. Also having a garment a bit bigger is always preferable because it's easy to fix.
Don't be frustrated, learning not only takes time, it's also a nerve-wracking process. Every seamstress knows that - so no need to be sad.
Just keep going, things get easier with time.
Love the dress, honestly!
Thank you so much!
My favorite way to hem circle skirts is bias tape! Lays nice and flat after
Ooo interesting! I’ll have to give that a try in the future!
Keep going, is so worth it. Velvet is so hard to work with but so classy.
When I work with velvet crepe. I always think of that seamstress at YSL who spent hours and hours on a silk velvet dress and when she shown her dress to the designer, Mr Saint Laurent, simply said, No, it doesn't work, it looks like and old curtain... she cried...and worked on another dress. This is to say, if you love what you do, go for it, it is always worth it ❤
I really appreciate the openness and honesty from your video. Your red velvet dress turned out wonderfully in the end and you really look happy in it. I also took on the challenge of making a velvet Christmas dress, this was my first time using a sewing machine and sewing a garment. Unfortunately I did not finish it in time for the holiday and still have not finished it. My seems were not matching up so I kept seem ripping my skirt to bodice, I worked on it 15 hours on Christmas Eve. I am definitely burnt out. But I cannot wait to finish my little vogue S-4738 made from olive green velvet curtains. It was a great first garment, it was just a lot having 14 pieces to sew together for my first garment.
Thank you so much! Honestly, not hitting your own deadlines can be really deflating. I finished my dress before the party thankfully, but I actually almost didn’t post this video because I didn’t finish the edit before Christmas and thought it wouldn’t matter afterwards. But it is so worth it to see it through anyway if you can, it feels good when you know you made it to the other side! And the olive green garment sounds fabulous!
The dress turned out so beautiful! Well done! Please continue to make videos! I love your channel! ❤
re: the thread tension issue - that shit happens to me every time I change the ckind of thread I'm using, the kind of stitch I'm using the kind of fabric I'm using. Best I can say is just take a couple of bits of the project fabric and give it a test sew to make sure the machine isn't going to start chewing it up. I've lowkey just made one snip in the middle of the problem area and stretched it to un-ruffle it and gone over it again.
re: pleating. you can try doing some math. (Waist edge size - desired waist) = fabric you can use for pleating. If you wanted like a couple of big box pleats you can divide the pleat fabric buy the number of pleats and now you know how deep the pleat can be.
re ripping the bodice lining - Organza is the devil.
you finished it! people took pictures! THE WAR WAS WON.
When you have more experience you can always go back and alter it :)
Thread tension is the bane of my sewing experience. That and the timing. It's more expensive to have my machine repaired than it is to buy a new one. At least locally. So I took it apart myself. Its a finicky pain in the butt. Do not recommend lol
And a tip, linings are always slippery so they don't stick to you or the outer fabric. The organza was a good choice for giving volume since it's stiff, but I would've put something slippery underneath that. Just for comfort :)
The thing about a lot of projects that are so desperately flawed to us the creators is that, to an untrained eye (aka like everyone bc so few people sew these days) they're almost completely unnoticeable. I've fucked up my tension SO many times while sewing things (honestly i don't know how tension ALWAYS seems to get fucked up), the first (and at this point, only) time i sewed with satin my fabric slipped around so much that i ended up with a center back so wavy that there's a giant bubble in the back whenever I put it on, god knows ive fucked up on my linings and facings like a million times----and yet whenever I wear any of the dresses I made myself I get just SO many compliments. Even pinterest photos are taken from a distance---- we just despair bc we're so upclose and personal (and we know what the insides look like lmao)
You are doing GREAT! The dress is beautiful!
Always remember, if someone is close enough to you to see the sewing mistakes, they won't care. And if they care, they don't need to be that close to you 😂
Even after decades if sewing, I'm STILL too chicken to sew with velvet!
I absolutely love that concept, thank you!
A very pretty dress, it's always us that sees the mistakes but others just see you in a cute dress, two things 1 the 3 foot rule= if it looks good from 3 feet way, that's good enough. 2 good, better, best= good is a yes, better is from practice, best is an ideal not a reality. You show up and did the thing, have you looked inside your premade clothes? ❤
Thank you so much for this, I love both of these notions! I love, and will likely live by the 3 foot rule 😂
You're an inspiration to us all, and the dress is absolutely gorgeous 🌹
You did great. But some unasked for advice….stitch ripping is apart of sewing just as much as cutting fabric. The more you look at it as a part instead of having to do it because of a mistake the better you will be. It is MUCH easier to rip out a 12-14 inch stitch and be 100% happy with the end result then to wish you had of done it later on. It is still fixable. Like you said, you have to make mistakes to learn and get better. The dress is still very beautiful ❤
I am a very amateur sewer and am only 11 minutes into the video so far but with a circle skirt, I don't think you technically cut it on the bias because when it drapes, the grain line shifts at every point in the skirt. i.e. if you draw a bunch of parallel lines on your circle when flat, once it's assembled into a skirt those lines will vary in direction to the waistband/drape of the skirt. So I don't think there's anything you could have done to make sure that the direction of the fabric at the bodice matches the direction of the fabric at the adjoining skirt piece, besides sewing 2 half circle skirts together instead of one big circle
Good to know! That does make sense. Luckily I found that cutting the bodice pieces on a diagonal did work in this instance (at least to any obvious visual degree). Thankfully I don’t think I’ll have to do too many more velvet circle skirts in the future haha!
If you’re having a problem with not adding your seam allowance, that would make your garment smaller, not larger. Think about it. You would be cutting out something smaller than if you had put in the seam allowance, so the garment would be too small. I think your explanation about the puckering with the inside being smaller than the outside is possibly true.
I also have a velvet dress I've been wanting to do and haven't had the courage to touch the fabric, so mad props to you for going for it!! and it looked lovely, even if it didn't come out the exact way you wanted. congrats for going for it!
Thank you so much! And best of luck with yours when you do decide to take it on!
oh boy, the *noise* I made when you pulled out that crystal organza -_- please dont let this scare you away from organza! polyester organza is just uncommonly monsterous. silk or cotton is an amazing workhorse fabric that gives so much body and loft to things, 100% something I'd underline a velvet skirt with. next time look for a dull or matte finish organza and expect anythig shiny to be a beast.
also, it's totally possible to sew without adding seam allowances to your pattern! it just involves a completely different technique of tracing the patterns out in chalk and pinning them together along the chalk line, completely ignoring the cut edges. it's how every theater and opera I've ever made costumes for sews. it's super useful for costumes that have to be altered-restored-altered-restored ad nauseum for the next 30 years, its just not really taught outside of that context. I actually prefer sewing that way, I feel it's much more precise but it is slower.
at the end of the day you made a lovely dress out of some difficult fabrics, you should be incredibly proud of yourself.
My sewing experience is primarily on two old Bernina machines, but I have used some others, too. None of them have threaded their needles that way, though, is that normal for Singer machines? I am preparing to buy a new machine this year, probably, so I need to know.
Second edit (the first one was due to hitting the enter button before finishing):
Velvet is such a heavy fabric, yet not very structurally strong, so I would have felt compelled to add boning channels to the top to make sure it would lay the way it is supposed to. It surprised me to see the skirt behaving that well, since the thread direction of the fabric tends to be very visible in velvet, so the parts not parallell to the side thingy will tend to look very different than expected (I vividly remember sewing in one panel of my first velvet skirt upside down, and it was extremely visible, causing me to have to rip the seams and make a new one, as it was cut the wrong way, too, so it would have been wider at the top than at the bottom).
Thinking about sewing a velvet skirt with my current sewing experience, I would probably add some boning channels to the skirt seams, too, and use them to insert very thin and flexible bones like artificial whalebone or even simply some fishing line. Hm, fishing line inserted in vertical seams could be very useful, especially if you were after a slightly scalloped bottom, like on an over-skirt, ballgown style... Which reminds me of how GORGEOUS your lining fabric is! That stuff deserves to be an outer layer on top of a heavy fabric, perhaps even of a different colour, to make the shimmer really pop! The next time you buy fabric for lining, go for a bit of integrity, so the fabric will help steer the outside fabric to hang in the right direction, like the good old-fashioned white petticoats, but in a colour of your choice, since we now have that luxury. Learn more by googling, this was my first search result for "petticoat fabric":
historicalsewing.com/fabrics-to-make-pretty-petticoats
Thanks for these ideas! And I agree, the lining fabric (which I have learned via the comments is crystal organza and should NEVER be used as a lining fabric 😂) would be so pretty as an outer layer!
Also, regarding the threading of the machine, I’m not 100% sure. Mine is a pretty old singer, it was my mums first machine and she gifted it to me when she got a new one. I will say though, there’s a little bar above the needle that the thread is supposed to go through, but sometimes it slips out and I don’t notice. I spotted a few clips while editing where it had slipped out of the bar, which might be why it looks a bit funny. But if you’re considering a Singer, I’d look up how the modern machines are threaded, and also one thing to know, Singer parts are proprietary, so you can’t use third party feet and stuff. But that being said, there’s lots of part available for modern machines, just not mine 🙃
Velvet is evil. I would suggect 1. Get a walking foot. It's transformed sewing tricky fabric for me aand it took me 11 years to finally get one. 2. Use bias tape to hem your circle skirt. 3. Hand baste/tack before you sew seams. Not only is it opportunity to test the fit it makes the fabric less likely to slip when sewing.
I’m sorry to tell you that the only other method for making pleats is math. It’s up to you whether the pinning it over and over or math is the least frightening. Me, I would do the math, but everybody is different.
Haha I had a feeling that would be the answer. For now I’ll probably stick to my trial and error ways, but I will definitely look into to the math if I ever make something really important!
I am OBSESSED with how you styled this dress, definitely looks like a Pinterest image to me lol (I would pin it). Doing crafts on the floor while watching Jenna Marbles is just the basic girly experience; I'm glad we're all the same. I'm proud of you, stranger. It was a challenging project, but you did amazing. (Also, I'm side-eying my pattern collection beside me, all of them without seam allowances, and sweating a little bit. And I've been sewing for almost a decade.... we'll cross this bridge when we get to it. Thanks for the tip!)
This is such an awesome comment 😂 I love that you spotted the Jenna Marbles video. Thank you so much though! And just know you will not be alone in the agony of taking the time to build seam allowance in the patterns haha
The dress is good, one tip the lining fabric you chose wasn't the correct one, organza is not a fabric you normally use for lining it has body and you could have use it for a petycoat to give more fullnes to the skirt.But keep going you are doing a good job, it was difficult project with difficult fabrics. Maybe next time you might consider using facings instead of linning so it would be less stressfull
You’re 100% right! Picking what to line things with has been a major struggle for me that I definitely need to look in to more. But thank you! And I will definitely look in to facings!
You keep saying your skirt was double the correct size, but if you were supposed to divide by pi that’s 3.14. That means your skirt was triple the correct size. I just thought I’d let you know that for reference in case you wanted to make another one.
LOL sounds about right 😅 I will most certainly keep that in mind, especially if I decide to do a circle skirt without pleats!
@@the_renjaminThere are websites for circle skirt calculators that will do all the math for you. It does involve pi because you are looking for the radius. I always just go to an online calculator to help me. The Mood Fabric one is my favorite.
you could have done panels for the skirt hemming 1sr???????What??????? hemming is usually the last step, cutting velvet on a diagonal?????????/ you atr kidding.
You’re way braver than me …it turned out gorgeous Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
I am currently working on a dress that is HUMBLING me. I have already put it together and fully taken it apart once... Maybe twice depending on how you count 🫠
Kudos for keeping on with the project :)
And I feel the same way: we may come out on the other side with a pretty dress, but we 100% come out wiser
You looked great either way💃🏻😊
Extra comment to say that usually when doing most pleats you want 3x waist measurement. So, not dividing by pi your circle skirt ended up making it just right 😅
Happy little accidents ❤