A little sewing - The Washi Dress

I love to sew and have been sewing for years now, but I still have very little experience with sewing from patterns.

I usually make my own patterns, but I haven't had the ability or time to think over enough details to really make something wearable since Clothilde was born.  It's hard enough to have time to even get out my sewing machine.  I tried making something from a pattern years ago and it was a failure.  I couldn't tell anywhere on the pattern if they had already added the seam allowance in (I now realize they did) and I cut it out wrong on a piece of corduroy so that one leg had the corduroy strip facing the wrong way!

The Washi Dress looked so cute and simple, I thought I might like to try another pattern.  That's how I learned knitting - I tried more complex patterns to challenge myself to learn different techniques and clothing construction.

Well, I did finish the first one, and I'm discovering I am not actually a "large," but rather am a "medium."  I guess that's a good thing, but it looks a little tent-like on me, so I am sewing on a tie to draw back the extra fabric.  I took my chest measurements three times, and every time ended up with a different number, so I thought it would be best to error on too large.  I also found out that I can't understitch very well at all, and I ended up hand stitching the facings.

I'm going to try another attempt, perhaps next week when I've finished sewing the tie to this one.  I know the second dress will be easier.