The moment of truth has arrived, and the news is not good. The dress gets about a C+, which isn’t the most auspicious beginning to a costuming blog but there you have it.
Reality.
I’d hoped for something better, but I wasn’t expecting a miracle. As I said before, first dresses are hard for a lot of reasons. And having limits to the amount of available fabric didn’t make things any easier. So let’s start there.
The ruffles are clearly too narrow and not full enough. This is because I used the existing ruffles on the skirt I disassembled. If I made this same dress again, I would make them deeper and fuller. I’m also frustrated by the results of their being cut on the bias. Things cut on the bias stretch like crazy, and when they stretch, they change size. This means even though their hems were absolutely perfect little 1/8″ odes to ruler use, they don’t look it anymore because the stretching ruined everything. It also made it near impossible to get the cording to lie straight.
Big sigh.
I’m also pretty disappointed with the ruched center of the bodice. What a mess! I will definitely be working on ways to improve that technique. The spacing between the rows needs to be controlled better, the seaming at the sides needs to be neater, and I think a corded waistline would be a better way to finish the bottom.
I’m going to take a minute to scream now.
Okay. The self-recrimination is over. I’m waving goodbye to the bad dress in the rearview mirror.
I’m telling myself it’s okay not to be perfect.
I don’t believe this for a second, but I’m going to focus on the one bright spot on the horizon. It’s spaghetti night at my house.
There will be wine.
To read all about this project from beginning to end, click HERE.
To see a tutorial on the one right thing about this dress – the cartridge pleating – click HERE.
To see all of Maddie’s wardrobe project posts, click HERE.
And to see just a few more pretty pictures of this dress, hop over to the Gallery HERE.