Polka Dots. Yay!

I have been making accessories for quite some time now, and I've come to the conclusion that, scary as it feels, it's about time I jumped in the deep end and had a go at making actual clothing. So that's exactly what I did! This blog entry is not presented as a DIY because it's my first real try at making clothes. Maybe I've gotten a bit ahead of myself and forgotten that I'm a beginner with no clue what I'm doing, but who cares?! This was so much fun, and to my surprise, it was EASY! Super easy.

I used scissors, needle and thread, newspaper, masking tape, a borrowed sewing machine, copious amounts of pins, and some super bargain fabric found in the charity shop for £1. Yes, seriously, it was only £1. See..

Firstly, I measured myself around the bust and waist (I'm not going to tell you the numbers though), and then measured the length I wanted the top to be. 
Then, I taped together newspaper sheets, marked out the correct shape, and cut it out to make my pattern.

I then lay this pattern on top of my fabric, pinned it down, and cut it out. I had to be careful not to make mistakes though because there wasn't a lot of fabric to spare.

I then used the pattern again to make the back. The problem was, as stated earlier, I didn't have a lot of fabric to spare. In fact, I plain and simply didn't have enough to make the back. So, what I did was to cut out 2 pieces, each a third of the width of the first piece, the plan being to put a panel of plain black fabric (taken from an old jumper that no longer fits) in the back.

Each of these pieces were then hemmed by folding over each edge twice, pinning, adding temporary stitches, and then running through the sewing machine.

Now for the straps. Once again, the lack of fabric seemed as if it was going to be a problem. I had enough left over, but none of it long enough. The solution was to make each strap in two parts. So I cut out 4 pieces of equal(ish) size, folded each strip in half along the edge and inside out, and hemmed as before.

 After passing through the sewing machine, I turned each piece back the right way out. This proved to be tricky to do by hand, so I solved the issue by using the handle of a wooden spoon.

 Now came the time to assemble!
Firstly, I laid the front on the floor, right side up, then laid the two back panels upside down on top, making sure that the edges lined up.

These were then sewn together. Then the back panel was added.

Time to try it on. This was when I noticed the big problem I had with gaping at the back.

To solve this, I first made 2 pinches in the front on the bust, one on either side..

I then pulled the back together at the top and stitched in place.

Now I know what you're thinking, that looks unsightly. And I would agree with you. So I added poppers to the points to bring it together when wearing, and made a bow to sew onto the back to cover the whole mess up.

I then put the top back on and pinned the straps into place on the front and the back, then sewed them into place.

I was going to sew the two halves of each strap together, but at last minute I changed my mind and thought tying them would look cute.

And it was as simple as that to make my first ever item of actual wearable clothing from scratch.

It doesn't look much like this, but comes to life with a belt and look really good with a pencil skirt.

Works with jeans too!

I'll be honest, with all of the trial and error, this took quite some time, completely worth it for the sense of gratification though.

Total cost: £1
Total time spent: around 6 hours.