Making my own Cheongsam

This year, I made it a point to spend at least 5 hours every week on something that I like.

And it has paid off handsomely because I managed to make my own Cheongsam! It's my first successful attempt - the last time I attempted to make my own prom dress when I was 16, it failed terribly. I don't know what possessed Huiyi and I to think that it would turn out well. It was silver, and shimmery, and a disaster. Haha. Oh well, I will let pictures do the talking!

I searched spotlight for hours but couldn't find cheongsam dress patterns in spotlight. So I took an old cheongsam that I no longer wanted and took the seams apart. Used it as a template for my dress pattern. My first attempt but I decided to go ambitious with a lace back cos I've been looking at so many photos of wedding cheongsams and their backs are all so gorgeous.

My first mistake - was trying to iron interfacing onto the seams and got impatient cos it wasn't sticking and set the temperature on overdrive. My poor lace couldn't take the heat and melted! Luckily it was salvage-able with a few stitches.

70% done. I was so impatient with the rouleau loops cos I had to hand sew them on one by one! There were 22 loops in total for the back. The invisible zip had to be sewn on by hand too cos I didn't have a foot for invisible zippers.

Finally done! My 'S' mannequin wears it perfectly, but the lace is loose at the back for me cos I'm flat chested :(

Upclose of the extremely chio back which I spent many hours on! I think I spent half the time on this. This chio back is extremely impractical because you can't wear the dress by yourself without missing out a few buttons/ spraining your back. I guess that's why only wedding cheongsams are made like that.

My mummy wore it, and she liked it a lot, and requested one for herself too. 

 

This time, no crazy backs like that.

 

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The weekend has arrived! My room is in a mess, and I've tons of designing/ craft to do for the wedding. Ambitious me, I am heading a huge craft project with the help of a few friends, and bought so much stuff from taobao! I've plain tote bags, glass bottles, leather, lip balm cases, paints and many more things lying all around my room. I'm aghast by its state.

 

I've decided also to blog more about DIYing the wedding with the help of taobao, cos it's been a huge help to me despite my busy schedule. And I realise not a lot of people blog about such things. Maybe it will help them or something.

 

After my wedding dresses all arrive, I'm gonna do a blog on how to order wedding dresses on taobao!