Tuesday 29 January 2013

Curved Seams Dress...


This month, I'm joining in with Rikka, over at Ricochet and Away, for the Curved Seams Challenge. I was keen to tackle the challenge, as it involved learning a new skill: sewing flat, curved seams.



Initially, I thought I'd make a dress. Then I changed my mind a few times, thinking I might make a bag, then a small quilt and eventually came back to my original idea of a dress.

I knew I had enough fabric left over from the stripes and polka dot dress, to make another dress in the same style, although a little smaller. Once again, I've used the Good Deeds Dress pattern by Elysium; a pattern created specifically for charity sewing.

After looking at lots of pictures on the Curved Seams Pinterest board and following many links, I settled on the following two tutorials to guide me on my new venture:
I cut random, gentle curves and it all came together surprisingly quickly.

Above is the back view of the dress and below the front. The curved seams are not as obvious as they might be on a non-gathered item, but that was the effect I was after. I am so pleased, that what was in my head translated to the actual project.


The stripes and polka dot curved seams dress turned out exactly as I had envisaged and I'm really happy with it, but I had some Alexander Henry, Willow Grove, and I could picture another dress I wanted to make, this time with one curved seam going horizontally around the dress. Instead of a plain band at the bottom of the dress, I thought I'd make a wavy band, using my newly acquired knowledge of curved seams.

Here is the Willow Grove fabric on top of a navy blue (not sewn yet). They look great together, don't they. I cut the navy fabric and sewed the curved seam. Hmmm.... Some of the curves were puckered. Not exactly what I'd planned. Back to the tutorials to see where I'd gone wrong. Both tutorials stressed... gentle curves, with no steep hills or valleys. I recut the fabric, with gentler curves, but some seams were still puckered, so obviously not gentle enough. At this point, I decided that this was a project for another day. 

Making the puckered seams is not a bad thing, as making mistakes is part of the learning process, although perhaps best learnt on a cheaper piece of fabric.

Thanks, Rikka, for yet another challenging challenge. I've thoroughly enjoyed learning how to make curved seams. This is the ninth challenge I've done with Rikka, each one enabling me to learn a new sewing skill or technique.

Curved Seams Challenge Homepage

The curved seams dress will be packed up and sent to the Australian representative for Dress A Girl Around the World and from there, will be sent to a little girl who otherwise might not own a dress.

I'll be adding this dress to the Ongoing Dresses for Girls link party, here at Threading My Way. As of today, there are 240 fabulous dresses in the collection. I'd love you to add any dresses you have made.

... Pam

30 comments:

  1. Congrats on meeting the challenge, Pam! I love how the two prints work together. I've been dealing with some puckering in my curved seams as well--frustrating! Again, I love the dress and I'm sure there's a little girl who'll love it too!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, it's just gorgeous and I'm thrilled that you are sending it off to Dress a Girl!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Kate! I like to vary the dresses I make to send to Dress A Girl...

      Delete
  3. Well done Pam, there will be one very lucky girl who gets to wear this one!

    ReplyDelete
  4. It is lovely Pam, well done on meeting another challenge so beautifully!

    ReplyDelete
  5. You've got my brain in overdrive thinking of ways to incorporate curves into my sewing now!

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a fun technique! Beautiful dress, Pam!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Again your dress looks beautiful! I like this technique on a little girl's dress, making it fun!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wow, I love this dress, the colors and the technique you used. Thanks for giving us the links to the sites that you have used to learn this technique, I visited and save it to my favorites because is very well explained. This is something that I have to try one day. The project you chose to take part to the challenge is lovely, really lovely. It's more beautiful to know that you're going to send this dress to Dress A Girl Around the World!!!!
    I hope you do not mind I pinned on Pinterest!
    Marisa from
    http://passionetcouture.blogspot.ca/

    ReplyDelete
  9. Beautiful! Wish I had more time to play with this idea, but so much is going on right now. It definitely going on my list for the future, though.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Lovely dress!! Especially love the wavy band, looks so pro!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Lovely Pam .. When I saw the frock in my reader I couldn gues .. BUt the photos in your post make them clear .. The frock is creating waves ;)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Wow! looks great! Curves are scary, but you have nailed them!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Your dress looks great! I am a seamstress myself, but have never taken on the challenge of flat curves. I found your blog through project inspire. I have followed you and hope that you will stop by and follow me back! Thanks - Mandy
    http://www.nstitchesdesigns.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  14. You're amazing, Pam! Love that you're constantly improving your already great sewing skills and donating to charity! Thanks for linking up at Monday Makeover.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Great work on those curved seams Pam!! - I especially like that wavy band on the bottom of the dress!! Something else I need to have a go at myself!

    Thanks for linking to a Round Tuit!
    Hope you have a fabulous week!
    Jill @ Creating my way to Success
    http://www.jembellish.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  16. What a great project and a wonderful way to learn a new skill! The dress is so sweet!

    ReplyDelete
  17. I think it looks great! I would love for you to come over to my blog hop and share this there!
    http://countrifiedhicks.blogspot.com/2013/02/mondays-with-countrified-hicks-blog-hop.html

    ReplyDelete
  18. That's such a cute dress.. nice work!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Wow! That is such a cool detail! I wonder if I could transfer that to some sort of boy wear. . .
    Thanks for linking up!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Cool. I have never tried these seams before. The fabrics go nicely together

    ReplyDelete
  21. love it! thanks so much for sharing on Craft Schooling Sunday!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Adorable dress! I love the colors!

    Navy Wifey Peters @ Submarine Sunday Link Party
    http://www.usscrafty.blogspot.com/2013/02/submarine-sunday-18.html

    ReplyDelete
  23. Congrats on your lovely curved seam dress. I hope you work out a way to join your willow grove to the navy because it's a fab combination :)

    ReplyDelete
  24. I love the colours you've put together here Pam, it's a really great dress :)

    ReplyDelete
  25. I love your curved dress. A nice change to a gathered skirt. I sew for the charity Tender Loving Care who sends dresses to the children in need in the Applachians. They need clothes to go to school in so if anyone is interested they could use help also

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by! I love reading your comments and try to reply to all of them via email. If you don't receive an email reply from me, check back here.