Friday, December 28, 2012

Miranda Made A Million Dresses



Miranda here, dress maven and reluctant fashionista.  Over the past six years of seriously sewing for myself, I now count 34 dresses in my closet.  That's when I embraced my inner Ms. Frizzle by making dresses out of whatever fabric I darn well wanted to: moths, birds, owls, sea creatures, horror movie characters, woodgrain, weird sparkly polyester blends.


The majority of the dresses I've made have been based on the dirndl dress pattern in Wendy Mullin's book Built By Wendy: Dresses. It's infinitely adjustable while remaining basic.  Recently, I've been experimenting with adding a waistband, pockets or a hood. A hood requires a side zipper, which isn't so scary once you know that you can alter your pattern easily. This book helped me learn what sewing rules to follow and what rules you can bend and break.

Other patterns I have used:
Colette Patterns - Truffle (from the Colette Sewing Handbook)
Colette Patterns - Macaron
Burda #6016 - "Heidi"
Burda #6066 - "Theresa"
Jamie Christina's Miz Mozelle pattern

Sewing my own clothes has allowed me to own my goofy, girly style and to become comfortable with my body.  When your clothes fit both your body and your personality well, it just feels good. If you've never made yourself a whole garment, I can tell you wholeheartedly that it is worth every stitch. You are worth every stitch.

11 comments:

Pink said...

That is an incredible variety of dresses! You might have more homemade clothes than I do, good job!

Jeanne Lois said...

Holy butt this rules! Nice job M! I might sneak into your house and steal a few of those ;)

Anonymous said...

Awesomeness!!! Check out the Shimmer Sparkle Shine Project on Facebook. I posted your story there Miranda because it is obvious you shimmer, sparkle, and shine!

Rita

Anonymous said...

i would LOVE to see those beauties up close! Adorable!

Sonya Philip said...

GAH! I love this, I would. So brilliant and creative. I completely know what you mean about the inner Ms. Frizzle. I have some onion fabric that needs sewing! Yay dresses!!

Helen Carter said...

These are all adorable! I love, love love the yellow pockets. Hurray for you.

Rachael Herron said...

this is AWESOME. You look great in all of them.

LoveisaForgetMeNot said...

You're so wonderful Miranda! <3

Anonymous said...

Miss you Miranda!! Love the dresses...! ♥ Tiff, your old neighbor in G town

Unknown said...

The gray hooded dress is amazing! May I ask which pattern that is from? Very inspiring stuff. :)

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