Baš volim što ti je lepo

♫ ♪ Margita je mrtva - Baš volim što ti je lepo

It’s been a while since I made a cute dress.. And a very longer time since I tried a new way of manipulating the fabric.. Like sewing all the pintucks, lace insertions and scallops wasn’t enough, I felt the need to bring something different into my sewing routine.. Pleated trims were on my mind for quite a while, just never got around to try making them (the easier way).. My first (recent) project was this blouse I posted on Instagram.. Nothing special for a first try.. I needed something simple until my horror vacui mood kicks in.. To be honest, I had success with making pleated trims in my early days of sewing.. Only problem was the time it took me to make those – several episodes of Midsomer murders (one episode lasts about hour and a half!!!).. During my new recent experiment I was sure there must be a faster way to make these little thingies.. I even remembered that Andy from 8^th season of Project Runway had a pleating tool which helped him to make those gorgeous pleated trims for the final collection.. So if Endy could make pleated trims without wasting too much time, so can I!! With that on my mind, I found the tutorial on how to make a pleating tool.. It was the first tutorial that popped on Google.. I took a quick look, and used a thicker paper I had at hand for making that little helper.. I’m very pleased with how much time it saves, and how easy it is too use.. Of course, my tool is small dimensions, for making ¼ inch pleated trims.. 

Now a little about the dress.. Adding something interesting into princess seams of bodice I tried couple years back, and you can see my dress with scallops here.. For that one I used a Burda pattern.. This time I wanted to try redrafting a basic bodice sloper to what I had on my mind and see if the fit would be wearable.. My redraft is not very different from the Burda pattern I already used, but I still needed a confirmation that one can easily play with simple shapes to get something different.. To get what I wanted from bodice sloper I opened the neckline, redrafted waist darts into princes seams, and made ¾ sleeves.. Nothing complicated.. The skirt is simple pleated one.. 

The fabric that I used for this dress is lightweight cotton I bought long time ago.. It’s very soft, and a pleasure to work with.. Print on this black fabric is barely visible from distance.. That’s why I’m posting so many close-up photos.. Interesting part about this dress is adding previously made pleated trims into princess seams.. As it happens, I thought there was room for more details.. Black lace cotton trim was a logical choice with this dark fabric.. It’s a decorative detail, and also covers topstitching I would add to secure the pleated trim.. My sister stopped me from adding more lace trims to the bodice.. I was thinking about horizontal ones at the center front piece.. I guess it’s good that I listened to her.. This fabric has print, there’s already something going on there.. Different story would be with a solid color fabric..

As you can see, this experiment with redrafting the bodice has good results.. I’m very pleased with the outcome.. Now I need to find some lighter and brighter color fabrics for the upcoming Spring, or Summer in our case.. In future I’ll try improvising more with this pattern.. Maybe I’ll start making new versions of the dress with scallops.. Or with pintucks.. Endless possibilities.. The only thing I forgot to photograph is the polka-dot lining of the dress.. I love adding cute details even when they are not visible to anyone except the person wearing the outfit..

Behind the camera - мој Матија