hard – Fad I Had

In July 2013, I purchased a Brother FS-40 sewing machine.

Sewing Machine

I had no idea how to use a sewing machine, so I watched a few videos on Youtube to learn the basic techniques of sewing using different stitches and positioning the fabric when sewing it together. But I still I had to read the manual that came with my sewing machine to understand how to use it properly! It only took me a few hours to practise with some scrap fabric that ended up with a broken needle!

As soon as I had learnt how to use my machine, I decided wanted to design a dress myself without using a sewing pattern. I watched a Youtube video on how to measure myself, so the dress would fit me. I grabbed a pencil and a pad, and started sketching a design for a dress. I wanted a floor length maxi style dress with a 1950’s sweetheart neckline and a halter neck strap. I jotted down my measurements and used tracing paper to make templates for each sections of the dress that I would be sewing, so that I could cut the fabric to size. At this stage I didn’t have the fabric for the dress so online I went! I’d never bought fabric before and I didn’t know at the time what fabric would be suitable for the design I had made. I found a beautiful silk fabric, that was a sky blue colour with a floral design and I ordered 3 metres. When the fabric arrived, it was so soft! But I had forgotten to take into account that I had designed the dress to slip on over my head and the silk fabric was not stretchy. I didn’t want the dress to have buttons or a zip, so I cut new templates out of the tracing paper to be a bit bigger than my measurements and purchased some elastic thread. I was now ready to start the dress!

I laid all the silk fabric on the floor and placed my templates on top of them. I then used white chalk to draw around the templates and cut the fabric. Once I had all the pieces cut to make my dress, I set up the sewing machine using the correct tension for the fabric I was using and loaded it with blue thread. I was now ready to start sewing.

I started sewing together the top half of the dress first, which comprised of four parts, see sketch below:

Sewing the pieces together was easy, apart from the sweetheart neckline, this was a challenge and took me three attempts to get a heart shape I was happy with! I then sewed the side pieces to it, along with the back piece and added the straps. I tried the top half on by putting it over my head and I was very happy that it fit me, but it was loose.

The bottom half of the dress was just one long piece of fabric, sewn together to make a cylinder shape. I hemmed the bottom of the dress so that the fabric wouldn’t fray and then pinned the bottom half of the dress to the top half. This was quite fiddly as it was the first time I was using the elastic thread but I soon realised I hadn’t changed the tension on my machine so the stitch was too tight, which meant I had to unpick the stitches I had just sewn. I’d learned from this mistake though by grabbing a spare piece of fabric and practising some lines using the elastic thread. It worked better with loose tension and I noticed that the lines had made the fabric become stretchy. This gave me an idea to put five lines on the back of the dress to make the top half more fitted. Once I had finished sewing the top and bottom of the dress together, and the elastic lines on the back. I was relived it fitted and that I’d now finished. I did notice that the elastic line I’d sewn across the back was not in the centre but I didn’t care as I was so happy I’d made a dress and I couldn’t wait to show it off!

Here’s the completed dress, with an added belt:

Over all the dress took me two weeks to complete, I’m not sure how many hours though as I was only doing it after work. I’ve worn this dress twice since making it. The first time I wore it was at work and half way through the day when I was walking around the office in a hurry, I realised I’d missed out something important when designing the dress. I’d cut the top half the same width as the top, which meant when I was walking the bottom was not wide enough for my stride, so I had to take small steps for the rest of the day! I did alter this once I got home though by making a slit on the one side of the dress that was knee high. The second time I wore the dress, walking was much more comfortable! 🙂

RATINGS

Difficulty scale – Medium
Time taken – 2 weeks
Enjoyment – but frustrating at times – always plan ahead!
Would I do it again? – YES, if I had the time

In November 2015 I was browsing online when I came across this beauty:

DIY house

It looked very easy to make and from reviews online all I needed was some UHU glue and I was good to go. I ordered it from Ebay and it came 3 days later and as soon as I got home from work, I ripped open the box eager to get started!

This is what I got inside the box:

up box contents

I also bought a Stanley knife, sandpaper, scissors and a ruler.

After an hour of sorting out all the little pieces, I decided to read the manual! There was a lot to take in and I soon realised it was going to be a bit more fiddly than I initially thought.

I started by lightly sanding the edges of the wooden pieces for the house as this would help the glue bond better. Next I then cut out all the wall paper and flooring ready for the inside of the house and stuck them to the correct walls and floors.

After the pieces had dried, the manual then instructed me to do the windows and porch on the front of the house. This consisted of little wooden white squares, that were to be glued on the out side of each wall that had a hole for the window. The main window on the front of the house was more complex and took a very steady hand to put together as it was delicate. I did snap the bottom half but managed to glue it back together, without it being too noticeable! See… 🙂

Once the windows were fixed, it was time to glue the four walls onto the main flooring and let dry. When the walls dried I then attached the front porch to the house and the main window. As there are lights to be fitted, it was now time to fit them before the roof was placed on. The lights were easy to insert into the house, though the glue was very noticeable on the walls. The circuit for the lights contained two LED lights as the house has two rooms.

The next part was the furniture! This was the bit I was looking forward to the most, decorating! I must admit, the chairs were so small, that it was very hard to cover the small pieces with fabric. Cutting the little wooden legs took a few goes as they were either uneven or kept breaking in half! Yes, this was very frustrating and I gave up at this point. Though, it was them little legs that made me leave it unfinished on the shelf for 4 months, until I had the motivation to try again.

The other room in the house was the kitchen, The main feature in the kitchen for me is the chandelier, again fiddly, but worth it! Here’s the finished kitchen and living room below:

The roof was simple to assemble and required some sanding to create a fully joined peak at the top of the roof. Once I had glued the roof parts together and added the chimney, I then glued the LED light that’s in the kitchen to the roof, as the manual had instructed. The final piece to be made for the house was the balloons, I couldn’t understand the diagrams in the manual so I just made them up to how I thought they should be. The balloons are made of coloured beads, thin wire and a lot of glue! I used way more glue than I should have and some of the colours from the beads started to run! Ooops!

Now the house was complete and the lights were working, I had to cut a clear tube to be glued underneath the house so that I looks like it’s floating. I tipped 3 quarters of the gravel stones into the bottom of the glass ball and the rest was glued onto the underneath part of the grass. After I had put the grass under the house it was ready to be inserted into the glass ball. This was very easy as the hole is bigger than the house, so it slid straight in! The battery for the lights is then hidden in the stones. The last and final piece was the white picket fence, this of course was very simple to build, 4 strips of wood glued to make a square and then placed over the house.

Here’s the final pictures:

RATINGS

Difficulty scale – Hard
Time taken – 5 months (on and off)
Enjoyment – 🙂 Frustrating at times but pure satisfaction once finished!
Would I do it again? NO

Tag: hard

Sewing Machine – Dress Making!

DIY – Disney Pixar ‘UP’ House – with sound controlled lights