Cat Lady Sewing Challenge

I’m done!

I have officially finished my Cat Lady Sewing Challenge dress!

I am so proud of myself; I managed to turn a duvet cover into a dress…. My lining arrived this afternoon, so I jumped straight to it and sewed it into the skirt to make it less transparent.

It makes a lot of noise, and isn’t the best feeling in the world, but it does the trick so!

I actually have a little label I want to sew in, which came from the original duvet, it would be as a nod to the original state of the dress. But I’m not sure where I want to put it….

So, drumroll please……

This is the finished product!

And this is the lining (you can just about see it).

I will get my ‘official’ competition photos done soon, once I can rope my flat mate into helping me.

Umbridge Dress

Just a quick update on my cat lady challenge dress!

I have completed the skirt, and reinforced all the seams, and I have altered the bodice so it actually fits! (Although I tried to take it off after taking photos and I seem to have ripped some of my sewing off….)

As you can see, for some reason my side pieces are not long enough, so either I sewed them on weirdly, or I have a long torso… either way, if I redo this pattern, that will be an alteration I will have to do! Because some of it is way shorter, my skirt is going to have to be attached pretty high up…

But I am wondering whether I should attach an elastic waistband. I think I should as it would make the dress easier to put on and off however I had such an awful time with elastic last time, I am a bit reluctant. But I think I should as then the dress would be broken up a tad, and that may be able to lengthen the bodice. Also, looking at that photo, would kitty benefit from having a bit more of his/her head sewn on? I have done on the other side so….

Well, I am getting there!! It is nice to see it taking shape, I must say! Also, you may have noticed the post’s name, and that is because my friend, on realising I was making a pink dress with  a cat on it, exclaimed “you’re going to look so cute, like Umbridge!!”.

Slightly horrified by that thought though I may be, any Harry Potter reference is a good Harry Potter reference….

Cat Lady Challenge Update

I have been having such horrors with my dress, it is unbelievable!

It has taken over my life, and that is no exaggeration…

I posted a photo on instagram;

And I stupidly thought that all I had to do was do some fitting adjustments. But. I sewed and I sewed and I sewed. And then I seam ripped all I had just done. (And repeated this a few hundred times) until I realised I had one piece of the bodice left laying on the floor. Then I decided that this fabric was not working for me (technically it is dogtooth and this is a CAT challenge sooo)
So I then cut out all my duvet cover up and after a few minor panics, I have all the pieces I need;

I am going to position the skirt panels a bit better and will probably sew poor kitty’s other ear on, on top of the skirt when I am all done.

I’m not going to say ‘All I have to do now is sew’ because there will inevitably be a few hundred issues, but it looks a little bit more like a dress now, yay!