The beginning of my journey...

Most of my first few sewing projects were up-cycling ones. And since I had a lot of big baggy maternity dresses on hand, I had plenty of 'materials' to work with!

I had a batik dress that was way too big for me even when I was heavily pregnant (I didn't buy this btw, my mum bought and gave it to me) but the fabric itself was soft and lovely to touch so I just chucked it to the back of the wardrobe.

Before: Ugly huge dress

With my new toy, I knew it was time to upcycle this into something I would wear. What I did was I draped it on me in front of the mirror and played ard with different looks then, once I decided the "look" I was going for, I went ahead and altered the dress!

I was breastfeeding then (extended bf!) so I had to make a dress that was bf-friendly (hence the deep cut in front!) This was my "beach wear" outfit. Self drafted, messy, but what an adventure!

After: Breastfeeding friendly beach chic dress

Since that first upcycling adventure, my upcycling projects became rather ambitious:

The original dress was a baggy shapeless maternity dress (top right corner, finished dress is on left and also worn) and i spent a lot of time looking at a RTW cowl dress that I loved from Espirit that I wanted to copy. Looking back, I realise now that I was probably way too ambitious trying to self-draft a cowl neck dress from a rtw with zero drafting knowledge. But back then, what do I know? All I had was time (during the little one's naps) and heaps of enthusiasm and a beginner's optimism. 

The photos looked pretty decent, but the truth was the finishing was bad 😅 I hadn't 'learnt' about the different sewing needles required for knit yet (also haven't bought any), I didn't have a walking foot. I did however used the correct stitch (sewing machine overcast stitch with overcast foot! thank you google)

Still, I was proud! I "made" myself a new dress!!

Another 'early work' of mine was this dress I made for my girl which I was particularly proud of.

It was self drafted with the naivety and enthusiasm that only an optimistic newbie like myself can muster. It actually fitted well for a woven dress and I only wish I had decent photos of my little one in it. She wore it twice and promptly outgrew it and back then, I don't take enough modelled photos of my work.

I have more works from 'that era' of early learning and I showcased almost all of it in my instagram cos back in those days, I was very proud of what I could achieve even though they weren't all gems. hehe.

But self drafting was difficult. And because I had no training, it was also not all good. It was not until I found out about pdf patterns that I truly started sewing a lot more and a lot better!

And of course, that is a post for another day!