individual – 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 December 2016 I decided that I wanted to become a fully trained eyelash technician, not because I wanted to earn some extra cash but because, well… why not?

I spoke to my niece, Jordan and asked her if she was up for doing the course as it meant we could practice on each other, and she agreed. We enrolled for the one day course in April 2017. A few days after we had booked the course I became curious to how the lashes were applied. I watched a few Youtube videos and soon learnt that two steady hands were required and having a weakness in my right hand, well, now it was a challenge that I couldn’t resist!

I was nervous on the morning of the course, in case I physically couldn’t do it and was wasting my money. Normally when I try new things, it’s at my pace and on my own, so I have no one to judge me. The course started at 10am and when Jordan and I arrived, we were joined by 20 other women, all eager to learn! A Scottish woman called Lisa was our trainer, she was very welcoming and made us all feel at ease. We were handed a booklet which contained all the information about the course and what we would learn. We spent about an hour going through each page of the booklet with Lisa and she was very thorough when explaining, answering all the questions everyone had. Once we knew the important bits and the basics, that’s when the fun started! We were each given an eyelash extension kit that contained all the equipment needed and a doll’s head. We gathered around Lisa’s doll and watched how she applied each lash. Once we were shown the technique, we then went to our dolls to practice.

I found applying the lashes on the doll very easy, the strip lash I was using to apply the individual lash to, was spacious between each strand and I didn’t need my right hand to separate the strip lashes. I practised separating the lashes with my right hand anyway and it was very slow. It took me 3 hours to apply the lashes onto the doll, but it was the same for everyone in the group. Here’s some pictures below:

Once we had finished on the dolls, Lisa asked for six volunteers to allow us all to apply 4 lashes to a real person. As soon as my turn came up, I was nervous. I sat down with my equipment, my right hand started shaking and I was worried I was going to poke the girl in the eye with my tweezers. I called Lisa over before I started as I was doubting myself and told her I wasn’t ready. She quickly assured me that the girl’s eyes were closed and I was not going to hurt her. I felt a bit stupid for panicking but took in a deep breath and starting separating the girl’s lashes with the tweezers, using my right hand. OK, I know said when I was using the doll it was easy but my god it’s not! Natural lashes come in different lengths, angles and layers! The lashes on the doll were one thin strip, human lashes are layered and it takes some time to find a healthy lash that is not at the end of it’s life cycle. It took me 15 minutes to find a lash, which then I had to hold my right hand steady enough so that the other lashes around it wouldn’t fall in between my tweezers. It was hard but I did it! I mastered one more lash after the first one. I was so nervous I couldn’t do the other two lashes.

When everyone had applied 4 lashes, Lisa then showed us how to remove the lashes individually on one of the girls that had volunteered. After we watched this, we were then given our certificates. Lisa told us to practice as much as we could before charging anyone for the lashes.

After the course had finished I went back to Jordan’s to do her eyelashes. I have to say it was much easier and more relaxing doing the eyelashes for someone you know. It took me 2 hours to put a few on Jordan’s lashes but I found that I can do it. Eventually with more practice it should take me no more than 2 hours to do a full set and that my dear friends is a new challenge on it’s own! Bring it on! 🙂

Here’s a picture of lashes I applied on Jordan:

Jordan Lashes

RATINGS

Difficulty scale – somewhat hard
Enjoyment – 😀
Would I do it again? – YES!

**UPDATE**

Since completing the course in April, I’ve done a further two sets of lashes on two different people.

Joanne Eyelashes — Time taken: 3 hours, 30 minutes

Tag: individual

Sewing Machine – Dress Making!

Individual Eyelash Extensions