How to upgrade a muslin into a lovely dress

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First: last Monday’s dress dyeing session was a huge success.
Second: I need a bigger table for sewing (look at the title photo and you know why :-D).

Last Monday I tried out another sewing pattern in the hunt for the perfect dress. This perfect dress should be in my eyes the right amount of fitted and comfortable – in sewing speech I think this sums up as semi-fitted :-D But that’s not all. I want the dress to fit my body, which seems to not conform in many ways to the „standard“ body used as a model for sewing patterns (or RTW clothes). Why even sew clothes, when I cannot make them fit me better than bought clothes, so my inner argument (meanwhile disregarding that I am not a learned seamstress, nor in any way gifted with sewing). And with these high hopes I tried out another cottage style dress from a new sewing book I brought back from my tiny vacation in Leipzig.

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You already saw the result last Monday; a dress which fits ok in an eyesore curtain fabric :-D But „ok“ counts in my world of unskilled sewing as a huge success, so I decided to upgrade this dress by dyeing it dark blue. Yeah – a plan. Only I did not know which kind of fabric I held in my hands and if it would hold the new dye. From other dyeing session I knew that pure synthetic (like the thread I use for sewing) will not change it color at all. From the grip and drape of the fabric I extrapolated (yes, I do scientific guessing :-DDDD) that it was a heavy cotton. @cryptocariad even found a sound test strategic to figure out the fibre content of my flowery curtain fabric. She said I should burn it…



Yes, yes, dear Needleworkers, I know you are hoping to now read about me incinerating a whole dress in my flat only to guess the fabric type. But no, I have learned something in the last years…. do not burn your projects at home :-DDD I am kidding. I got @cryptocariad‘s tip after I already shoved the dress for dyeing into the washing machine, so the opportunity for me to burn something was gone :-D

Thankfully the fabric was some kind of natural fibre as it dyed wonderfully. On our live chat I already showed you a first glimpse of the dress. But because it was so wet, it looked more black than blue.
So, here are the promised photos of the dyed and dried dress:

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The fabric is dark blue, but the flower pattern is still subtly visible. An outcome I honestly love. Finally a weird sewing experiment with bargain fabric went well 🎉

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You now may wonder why I show you these strange photos of me ironing fabric on the floor - that’s because I am already sewing with another bargain fabric in a strange color scheme. I was able to hunt down several metres of a stretchy jeans fabric in – how to describe the color elegantly…hmmm – several shades of 💩 :-D

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The fabric was 3 € per meter so I bought all I could get with a lovely coat and perhaps pants in mind. The downside was after washing it I had no place that was big enough to iron it before cutting the pattern. Believe me, ironing is not my most loved activity, but ironing while crouching on the floor lends it a whole new layer of discomfort.
But back to the dress, I wore it several days in a row and I feel like it is a real success. The only tiny tiny grain of salt is the fit of the shoulders (I already wrote this last Monday). And I think I would love to talk about the fitting of shoulders (for tops with set in sleeves) at our next live chat, if you are interested?


Thank you @crosheille for initiating and @marblely for hosting the #needleworkmonday and the community builder team @lauramica, @romeskie and @kattycrochet I am so glad to be part of. If you want to see more beautiful projects with yarn, fabric, and most of all needles, follow @needleworkmonday. Or even better grab your needles and keyboard and join the #needleworkmonday community.

Ohhh, if you don't have a hive account and want to comment then visit my Wordpressblog Bliss and Blisters and write me there.

Read more about my art und upcoming exhibitions on neumannsalva or buy some of my digital artworks on NFT showroom.

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17 comments
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Well for me I would rather enjoy wearing my unfitted clothes with pride that I made them instead of buying the fitted ones from the market.

Am sure you also find some form of joy making them, let your be complete when you rock you dress into the streets.

Seeings requires that one purchases a whole lot of items as you have experienced.
We need large tables and comfortable stool or seats to ease back pain whe we sew for long.

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Here it is very strange (in my eyes) fabric is very expensive and clothes are very cheap, so sewing is only sustainable if one buys bargain fabric or if the handmade clothes are better than what I can buy… a dilemma because I really want to sew, but if I make something unwearable (which can happen with my meagre skills) its so wasteful and I cannot justify to loose so much money.
And yes to the purchases. I fear I am too old to kneel for hours on the floor 😱 My husband is so lovely and already bought some wood and table-legs and will make me a bigger table for the sewing machine (happpyyyyy)

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Am happy to hear these, would be seeing you work on the table next

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So glad you didn't burn it, @neumannsalva !
😁

I think the dress turned out great and it's awesome to give garments a second lease of life by dyeing them.
So will you be dyeing that new fabric ?

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Burning was reallllllly tempting 🤪 We are trying to redecorate one room to construct a kind of studio for me and this is no fun. We have so much book still from university and all the jobs - no idea where to put them. So burning something seemed like a good solution :-DDDD
But joke aside, I am unsure if I will try dyeing the brown fabric. I will at first finish sewin the coat/dress and then ponder a ne color (I fear only black or dark brown are possible).

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Yep, I sympathise about the number of books, @neumannsalva : bits of paper / old magazines / let alone yarn and bits of fabric all too good to throw away or may be needed later type of feeling.
I was wondering whether a sort of plum / dark rust colour dye could work and be a change from black or navy (both are good colours though as they'd go with nearly anything).

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Plum or dark red is a perfect idea... but the fabric has really dark brown parts. Hmmmm. The dye come in a package, so that I cannot try it on a small snippet of fabric, its all or nothing. Have to think about it (and sew it :-DDD)

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Wow... İ really hate iron. İ don't like it, and sometimes i had burned my clothes. But you were lucky! You can do it and your dress is beautiful!

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Yes, ironing is a very unloved task, sadly sewing cannot be done without it. And naturally I also burned something because I forgot the iron... but I was so shocked, that I am very cautious now and so far all went well. I hope you could rescue your clothes?

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very beautiful color of the dress turned out! this color suits you: it brightens your face. I'm glad you did it !!! I'm wondering if the fabric will shed after painting when you wash it? it seems to me all the time that after painting the fabric should shed heavily. but I myself have never dyed the fabric, so this is a purely speculative conclusion. 3 euros per meter is a very good price. is the fabric synthetic or natural?

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Thank you so much for the lovely compliment 😌 I hope the dye will hold: I have washed the dress before dyeing and also two times afterwards so far and the color is still there. I have dyed some old clothes black (pants) and in my experience the color holds ok…
ANd with the brownish jeans like fabric: I have no clue what kind of fibre it is :-DDD Perhaps I should burn it :-DDDD

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I loved the result, the color looks perfect, no one would think it's a dress that has been given a second chance, good thing you didn't burn it, heheheh!

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Thank youuuuu and I also think the blue color is much better. I am so happy the dyeing worked so well. I am already pondering to also dye the brownish fabric (the one I am currently working with) but again, I have no idea if its a natural fibre and if it will hold the color.... (another opportunity for burning fabric :-D)

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