I'm a Golden Princess! - New Look 6480 & Simplicity 1427

What's the number for Disney so they can sign me?

This weekend was my grandmother's 80th birthday BASH so I wanted to wear something special.

A couple weeks ago I was going through my stash and matching up fabric with patterns and I came across THIS pattern and fell in love with View B

I had this gold Damask that was gifted to me last year a little bit after I sewed my first stitches.

I believe that it is from Thailand!

The colors for the party were emerald green and gold.

Panamanians LOVE gold lol

Anyway, I loved the top but I wasn't sure what bottoms to where. I know I wanted them to be white but I don't have white pants and I'm not yet comfortable with whipping up a pair of pants at the last minute.

Last week I saw the cover for this pattern and saw the outfit for View C.

Perfect.

Plus now I had an entry for the Pretty Girl's Sew May Sew-a-long!
I went to JoAnn's to buy all the supplies.

I pulled out the directions for the tulle skirt and my mind went BLANK.

I just couldn't understand them lol

I decided to cut the underskirt out for the length of View B and I only cut out 12 pieces of tulle.

6 for the front and six for the back.

I sewed them like a straight skirt and attached the waistband.

I don't like it but I wasn't planning on wearing it again anyway.

Looking at the instructions NOW, I definitely understand what was supposed to happen lol

The top was not difficult to sew up and I think it's beautiful.

The instructions for this pattern were VERY clear and easy to understand.

I used the gold side of the damask as the outside and the white contrasting side as the lining.

I was originally just going to line it in plain white but I wanted to showcase both sides.

Next time I use this fabric (I have plenty left) I'm definitely going to use the white side.

The top is complete with boning, a waist-stay, hand-sewn trim, and a lapped zipper!

None of which I have done previously!

The boning was pretty straight forward. No problems there.

The waist-stay was not actually a part of the pattern but the day after I decided I was going to make this top, I came across 3 really good articles about why they are useful/necessary so I decided to add one.

The articles are here, here, and here.

All I did was buy some white grosgrain, put it around my waist, mark where i felt it would be tight and secure and sewed the clasp pieces down at that point and the tip of the ribbon. 

I tacked it down NEXT to the zipper as to avoid bulking the zipper up.

If I had not added that in, my top would have been falling down ALL NIGHT.

Which is really weird because this pattern is made for teens.

One of which I am NOT.

My size wasn't even on the pattern envelope lol

the finished garment measurements for the largest size were 36-1/2 for the bust and a 27 waist.

I'm a 38 bust and 28 waist so instead of 5/8 in seam allowance, I sewed all of the seams with a 1/2 in SA aside from both sides.

I figured 2 seams on the back and 4 on the front would get me to wear I needed it to be.

Next time I make this (and there WILL be a next time) I'm just going to use 5/8 SA.

I had originally bought plain white ribbon for the trim like the picture has with the black.

When I was pinning it down, I had NO IDEA how to keep the ribbon continuous and turn all the corners at the same time.

Because I was on a TIGHT time constraint (party a few hours away) I stopped by Wal-Mart and picked up this ribbon.  I was able to cut and place the different pieces in a pattern I felt comfortable with and I really like the way it turned out.

I had never done a lapped zipper before so in conjunction with trying to understand the instructions, I found this tutorial on youtube and something clicked.

It's not perfect, but i know it will be better next time I do it.

I think that is all of the details lol

I felt so beautiful wearing it.

I kind of felt like Jessica Rabbit lol is that weird?

Tell me what you think!

Have you ever used a waist-stay??

xoxo, Tasha