Make do and .. well, make!

Ever got halfway through a sewing project only to find you’ve underestimated the amount of material needed? This is what happened to me when I made this dress. It was once a full, long skirt – I bought it years ago and unpicked it, so I don’t have a before picture to show you, unfortunately, but it was basically a long rectangle that had pleats in it. I used the length to my advantage to make the sleeves and body part of the dress, but it still only barely covered my behind.

 There were some random shapes left over after cutting out the main pattern pieces, but none really long enough to create a ruffle to attach to the hem (which was, of course, part of my cunning plan to add length). But from little things, big things grow, as the saying goes. In other words, if you join all the little pieces together, you’ll get a big piece. So that’s what I did. See?

 Can you tell where I joined pieces together? Of course this is not always a practical solution – depending on the pattern of the material it could look totally wrong. But I don’t think it really shows up too much on my dress unless you look really closely. And no one needs to be looking at my ruffles from that close, thank you very much!!

Another way I saved material was by using bias binding around the neckline instead of making a facing. This suited me for another reason – I hate making facings! Bias binding is a lot quicker and in this case didn’t make any difference to the appearance of the dress. Here’s a view from the inside – but you can’t see anything when the dress is being worn.

 Of course if I’d had the luxury of more material I would have experimented with the stripes a bit more – there’s a lot of potential for creating illusions with stripes. I could have created a dress that made me look like I have a waist, for instance. Oh well, next time! This post is all about making do, after all, so I’ll create a waist with a belt for now.

＊＊皆様、お元気？今回は、生地が足りなさそうな時の話をさせてくださいね。このワンピースは、もともとチャリティショップで購入した膝丈ぐらいのスカートでした。全部ほどいて、ワンピース作ってみましたが、途中で、お尻ぐらいの長さしかならないと気付いちゃいました。その時、ラッフルを付ければ解決できると分かったのですが、形がバラバラな小さな生地しかありませんでした。でも、そのバラバラの生地を縫い合わせてみたら、結局ラッフルを作るのにちょうど足りました。また、首周りはフェーシング(facingですが。。。日本語でも言うのかな？）でなく、生地の全くかからないバイアスバインディングにしました。そうすると、生地の量はぎりぎりでしたが、ちょうどよかったです！
小さな物を縫い合わせたら、ちょうどいいものになるのは、人間と同じですね。だって一人では難しいことを、何人でやってみたら、できるものです。DIY(Do It Yourself=自作、手作りなど)が教えてくれた人生のレッスンみたいですね！