All posts filed under: What I wear

Scroop Henrietta Maria with a drawstring waist thedreamstress.com

How to add a drawstring waist to the Scroop Henrietta Maria Dress

I’ve already shown how to add an elastic waistband to the  Scroop Henrietta Maria dress, but there is another way to add waist definition (other than the simplest of all: wearing a belt, of course!): with a drawstring. Here is how to create a drawstring on the Henrietta Maria.  This technique will work on any loose, straight-cut dress, so feel free to adapt it for other garments. You’ll be marking the waistband, working buttonholes for the drawstring to enter and exit through, sewing a casing  channel, and then threading the drawstring through.  Easy! You’ll need: Ribbon or twill tape for a drawstring – under 1/2″ wide, and long enough to go around your waist, tie in a nice bow, and hang down an attractive amount. 2.5cm/1″ wide single-fold bias tape, as long as the finished waist measure of your Henrietta Maria (measure around your finished dress, or refer to the Finished Garment measurements in the pattern) + 15cm/6″. Chalk or fabric markers for marking A french curve or ruler. A scrap of lightweight fusible interfacing, …

The Can of Worms skirt thedreamstress.com

The Can of Worms skirt

Sometimes sewing projects go to plan. And sometimes sewing projects seem like they are really simple, and then get more, and more, and more complicated… I’m sure you can guess which one this is from the title! The Can of Worms skirt  didn’t even start out as a skirt.   It started out as a dress that looked like this: I bought the dress while op-shopping with  Lauren of Wearing History after Costume College last August.  It wasn’t quite right: the zipper was a terrible mess, and it needed a sway back adjustment (SBA). But the fabric was amazing: hand worked embroidery, indigo dyeing and reverse applique.  I suspect it’s Hmong in origin. So I bought it, figuring I’d put in a zip, do a quick SBA, and everything would be fabulous. Haha.  Famous last words. I bought it in early August, but didn’t get around to altering it until mid  November, by which time I’d entirely forgotten about the SBA. So I unpicked the terrible zip, realised  that the stitching holding the skirt to …

A circular cardigan with a geek twist

In my last post I showed off my 1950s inspired circular cardigan, which manages to look far more glam than a cardigan ought to. When I was finishing the cardigan I discovered that it isn’t just limited to looking glam.  It’s also great for… …pretending to be a Jedi knight! While I’m only showing you the cardigan now, I actually finished it back in December, just when  A New Hope was in the theatres.  I tried on the mostly-finished cardigan for a friend, and she ‘ooohed’ over the flipped down collar and the swishy hem, and then I flipped up the collar to show it could also be a hood, and she practically fell  over laughing, saying I looked like I should be in Star Wars. Obviously, with a comment like that, I had to do a Star Wars photoshoot.  I put out a call for a lightsaber, and the amazing Nina came through with not only a lightsaber, but also a half-scale Stormtrooper and a Darth Vader for me to have an epic battle …