Lynne McCrossan: Biased approach led to terrible dressing down

Published on 08/10/2012 13:23

DISASTER has struck the dressmaking challenge. While committing myself to cut on the bias I made a boo-boo so big it resulted in a dress only a bin could wear.

I’ve slowly graduated up the dressmaking difficulty scale, making good progress as I went. Mistakes have been minimal and my fabric waste proudly at zero.

I took my new-found confidence with caution as cockiness and clothing don’t mix, but I think this apprehension may have been my downfall, as the machine must have smelled my fear.

Said fear was rooted in the fact that creating clothes on the bias is costly. And since half of the challenge is to see if it truly is cheaper to make your own clothes I wanted to get this one right.

It’s a luxurious cut of fabric, like the T-bone steak of the design world. Because you are cutting patterns diagonally in the fabric, you need a lot if it – I was £15 a metre with one dress needing three and a half metres. Yikes!

So I committed to the cut, overlocked the rich blue crepe and began sewing. I tried to ignore the hem curling upwards as I stitched. That was the least of my worries when I slipped it on as the front was a foot longer than the back and the shoulders had somehow morphed into a Quasimodo model. Oh the shame.

FASHION INSIDER

Rene Walrus will be opening its St Mary’s Street shop for a spot of bespoke jewellery-making classes, beginning this Thursday with a crystal cocktail ring workshop. I’ve got my eye on the chandelier earring workshop a week later.

For more information,

head to www.renewalrus.co.uk