I Did It!

Since I did that post in August about my purse/belt thing for my Wizard of Oz Dorothy dress, I thought and rethought the design many times. I was originally going to use newspaper to make a pattern and then realized that when it comes to measuring stuff and making perfect right angles and that sort of thing, I am woefully inept. Then I remembered the giant graph pad that My Sweetie uses to draw imaginary maps:

Yes, he used to be some sort of Dungeons and Dragons gatekeeper or whatever they call themselves, but hey, it's a perfectly harmless hobby. So I made some simple patterns:

Oh and since I did that post I decided I needed an extra pocket for my camera because I figured my camera was the heaviest item. So after a lot of brain damaging sewing I made the two pockets and sewed them to my "liner strip" of muslin.

Okay I also forgot to say that after I tried the dress on again, I realized that the sash was only attached to the dress by the two buttons. Same with the "suspenders." So instead of having to make a whole new sash for the pockets and have to wear that on top of the dress sash, I just removed the two buttons and everything came loose except the suspender things, which were still attached to the dress at the shoulders. This was a great happy time bonus for me because if there is one thing I dislike about sewing, it's having to sew a very long straight seam. Seriously, I was so happy about not having to make a new sash I think I did a whole Disney princess dance number. Not only that, but the suspender things were originally loose and did not lay right on the front of the dress. So really it was a double bonus.

~

Okay, so then I flipped my muslin liner part with the two pocket parts over and sewed it to the sash:

Front view:

The big pocket is lined with the muslin and the smaller camera pocket is just double gingham material. After the brain damage I incurred from making the big pocket with a one inch bottom and triangular sides, I kept the camera pocket very very simple. The next thing I had to do was make button holes. Although my 25 year old sewing machine makes button holes, the book said to make practice ones first and I am so glad I read that part. It took three tries to get one right. I was really nervous about the button hole part because that's something that would be hard to fix. Or maybe impossible. But I got them done on the sash. Then I tried on the dress with the sash and made marks through the button holes onto the dress so I'd know where to put the buttons. And since the gingham material was so very thin, I made two little circles of double muslin as button backers:

So the buttons were back on:

Then I had to sew button holes in the suspender things. That part was really tricky because I did not want them to be too loose or too tight. I tried on the dress and and used masking tape to mark where I thought the button holes should go and kept changing my mind. I finally settled on a place. I was super nervous about making those button holes because that was that. But somehow I found the right location and everything worked:

I actually had all my stuff in both pockets (except my hotel room key card, of course). I substituted my cell phone for the camera in the camera pocket since I had to use that to take the picture. It was a lot of work but it is done and I am happy. Now I just have to make my hair pieces. But at least I will not have to make button holes for that.