Week 13, Happy {Chinese} New Year!

My oldest child is a Sophmore at University of Georgia.  When she was graduating from High school I had this genius idea that I’d make her a Chinese dress.  She is Chinese and I thought it would be a special shout out to her heritage on her graduation day, plus they are gorgeous in my opinion.  She wasn’t a fan.  She is likely the most polite person God has created in the history of the world.  She tried to as diplomatically as possible say no.  “Maybe you could make it for yourself!”, she said.

At first I thought, “No way” and then after a while I thought “Why not?”  I have no where to wear this dress, but I didn’t care.  Most things that I make right now serve only one purpose, to teach me to be a better seamstress.  I love finding new challenges by picking new fabrics and challenging construction.  The Chinese brocade fabrics are stunning and challenging.  As it turns out they snag so easily.  This neckline was new and unlike any other I’ll end up trying.

I started this dress months ago.  It’s been sitting half done for quite a while and this week I opted to finish it out.

The neckline was challenging, but I’m happy with the turnout.

I hand sewed on the closures and it took what felt like forever.  That’s part of why this dress was left unfinished for so long, the hand sewing.  I feel like I’m awful at hand sewing and I try to avoid it, but this project really help me realize how much of my lack of skill is from lack of practice.  I felt like my skill level noticeably improved.

So here it is, my dress I made for really no reason other than I wanted to.

This dress is almost as hard to get on as my wedding dress was.  It fits well but that definitely cost me the ability to slip it on easily.  I almost had to call for help getting it on because for a moment I thought I was stuck.

I spent the day today cutting out new projects so I’m excited to start assembling them.

Happy New Year!  And if I end up celebrating Chinese New Year in February I’ve got the perfect outfit!