Rediscovering the Joy of Sewing My Own Clothes

The making a new dress for spring.

I know I’ve teased this newsletter a couple of times since I actually made the dress, and I had fully intended to have it ready to go this past Saturday. But I realized on Friday that it was the last day of February and I needed to get that month’s roundup published on that day.

I also figured that you didn’t need 3 newsletters in your inbox from me over the weekend :), so I’ve held onto this one as a mid-week treat for you generous, lovely people who support my work on this platform.

I appreciate each and every one of you so much 🫶🏻 and if there’s anything specific that you’d be interested in reading about, please let me know!

In this newsletter:

✅ A little sewing history

✅ Rediscovering the joy of sewing

✅ Notes about the sewing process

✅ Styling my new dress (2 outfits)

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A Little Sewing History

I started my sewing journey in April of 2020. I had been interested in ethical and sustainable fashion for a few years at this point and sewing my own clothes seemed like the next step in the journey. I had been following some sewing accounts on Instagram that I really liked and I was so inspired to start making my own clothes.

I was really into wearing dresses at the time and so that’s what I started with. I chose the Wilder Gown by Friday Pattern Company, and while I made a few mistakes (pleats instead of gathers, sewing one of the tiers on incorrectly and having to pick everything back out), I was hooked.

My first make - The Wilder Gown

And for about a year and a half, I made quite a few items. The sewing community was very welcoming and I loved making items and sharing them. But after a while, the sewing started to feel performative - I was sharing the sewing process and I feel like it took away the joy that I first felt when I started sewing, so I stopped. I talked more about that in this post.

I tried to get back into it a few times - I sewed a vest on 3/21/23 and then a dress on 8/15/23. The last thing I sewed was a top in March of last year, which I share in the above post.

I also cut out pieces for a quilted vest this past summer but they remain in a bin in my storage room. I think I’ll finish that project next!

Rediscovering the Joy of Sewing

A few weeks ago, I felt an urge to make something. Everything was feeling really heavy and my mood was low. I wanted needed to make something that felt light and airy.

I needed to make a dress for spring!

I knew that I had a white vintage tablecloth in my fabric stash that had just the light and airy vibe that I was going for.

And I knew the perfect pattern to use with it - the McCall’s M7969 dress pattern. I’ve made this dress a number of times before and I really enjoy the process. It’s one of my favorite patterns!

L-R: cotton gingham, silk organza, thrifted cotton blanket

So on Thursday (3/20), I got to ironing the fabric and cutting out the pattern pieces. When I was cutting out the pieces, I tried to keep the most interesting, and beautiful, details of the fabric front and center, and I tried to make sure that everything would be symmetrical!

On Friday, I sewed the front and back bodice pieces together and started on the sleeves.

I’m so in love with the details of this fabric!

The sleeves are the most involved part of this dress. I procrastinated doing them over the weekend but got back to them on Monday evening, when I completed the cuffs.

One of my favorite things about this dress are the big billowy sleeves that come together with a smaller cuff - I love the shape it creates so much!

I sewed the rest of the dress on Wednesday which involved attaching the sleeves to the bodice, adding the neck binding, joining the panels for the skirt and attaching the skirt to the bodice.

Front of the finished dress.

Skirt back of the finished dress.

Closeup of the front and back of the bodice.

The detail that I’m most proud of - french seams!

At the beginning of my sewing journey, I didn’t start a project unless I could finish it that day. However, I think this is one of the things that led to the burnout that I experienced, so I’ve vowed to not approach sewing like this anymore. Instead, I’ve decided to only sew when I really feel like it and I’m not forcing myself to.

Start to finish, it took me almost a week to complete this dress but the important thing I’m taking from this is that I completed it, and enjoyed the process as well.

That feels like a very big sewing win!

Notes about the sewing process:

1. I cut the pattern pieces down to a size small. In the past, I had always used a size medium (the 3 dresses above) but they felt a little too big, so I thought I would try a size small which is what I am in tops. The dress fits good but I actually wish that I had kept it a medium!

2. I didn’t make any adjustments to the pattern - it’s a straight size small.

3. I did french seams EVERYWHERE - it takes twice as long but I just love how it looks on the finished garment. When I’m sewing french seams, I always repeat to myself wrong, wrong, right right. Make a seam with wrong sides together first, trim the seam and then sew another seam with right sides together to enclose the raw edge) - this is how I remember how to do a french seam + a lot of practice 😅

4. I didn’t add a hem at the bottom. Instead, I measured exactly the length that I needed for the skirt so that I could keep the original bottom of the vintage tablecloth.

5. The dress pattern doesn’t come with pocket pattern pieces or instructions, and while I have added them in the past (green dress above), due to the sheerness of the fabric, I chose not to this time.

6. I forgot to cut the neck binding on the bias so it doesn’t sit perfectly. I might add a little tack where the two pieces of the bodice cross.

Styling My New Dress

I’ve been getting back into wearing dresses lately and having decluttered a few over the past few years that didn’t work for me anymore (like the brown/ivory gingham one above), I was excited to make this one.

You would have already seen the first way that I wore this dress in last week’s outfit diary - with my grey wool vest and black boots, but I wanted to share a couple of ways that I envision wearing this dress during the spring.

Outfit 1 - Traditional

I think that this outfit is something that you would expect with this type of dress, which I think is a little bohemian, maybe a little country and a lot cottagecore.

I’m really happy to have a pair of brown boots back in my wardrobe - as much as I love my black moto boots, I think the brown ones look better with this dress worn alone like this without some other layer.

Keeping with the bohemian vibe, I pulled my hair back into a loose updo (compliments of a hair clip) and I added a pair of hoop earrings that I made years ago that have small turquoise stones on them. I added a vintage silver bracelet with turquoise enamel as well as a silver bracelet that my husband gave me on our wedding day.

To tie everything together, I added my vintage brown Coach “lunchbox” and I just love how this outfit came together!

Is that Claire in the corner cleaning her face? Yes, yes it is 😺

I’m obsessed with the detailing of this fabric and while I feel a little bad about cutting up a beautiful vintage tablecloth, I really, really do love this dress and that makes me feel a little better!

Loving these touches of turquoise!

Outfit 2 - A Little Adventurous

I tried something here that feels a little out there - I used a crochet apron that I thrifted back in the fall as a sort of dickey so that I could add a buffer between my chest and the vest.

I could have added a tank top or something a little more traditional underneath but I think it’s fun to think outside the box and try something new. I don’t think I would wear the apron over the dress like this on it’s own (maybe if the apron part was on the back I would), but I do like the detail (and color) that it adds under the vest.

For this more casual outfit, I knew I wanted to wear my suede sneakers and I added a pair of grey socks for a little contrast. Who else loves a little peek of sock under a dress?

Then I added the vest but the outfit seemed off with a bare chest underneath a vest - a vest makes me think it’s cool outside but a bare chest makes it seem warm and I feel like that puts them at odds with each other without some kind of buffer. And I was excited to try this crochet apron as I haven’t worn it yet (maybe I wore it once back in the fall 🤔).

Accessorize with an apron? Why not!

I enjoy this outfit but the way that I styled the first outfit is probably more along the lines of how I will style the dress this spring. However, I think it’s going to be pretty easy to style in different ways and it’ll be a great addition to my wardrobe!

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I hope that you enjoyed this little foray into my sewing adventures. I’m not sure how much sewing I’ll do but I do feel a pull towards making more of my own clothes again.

Do you sew? If so, do you have a favorite pattern?

If not, is it something that you’d be interested in?

Thanks so much for reading!! xx Gillian