First Sequins and a Visit to SSE

One of my sewing goals last year was to slowly transition my entire wardrobe from store bought items to all made by me. It has been a rewarding goal that I have continued into this new year. So when my husband came home from work and told me about a quickly approaching awards dinner for his work, it made me pause. I mentally cataloged all the dresses in my closet and ran through the fabrics in my stash. Nothing felt appropriate and I was less than inspired by the options I had. This all happened right after a stunningly gorgeous gold ombre sequin stretch mesh stocked with So Sew English Fabrics. I LOVE ombre! I have other “prints” I love too; camo, black, purple, floral, etc, but there is just something about a good ombre that makes me sigh. Naturally, that ombre was forefront in my mind.

At the same time, we were leaving to go on a family vacation and my sewing time was going to be limited to two days between our return and the event. I am such a sloooow seamtress, that the time crunch made me nervous. But that ombre ❤ . I guess it was just meant to be that our family trip was about 30 minutes away from the new SSE fabric warehouse. I mean really, the stars aligned 😉 . I fabric stalked our entire trip.

Fabric stalking – When a person checks the amount of remaining yardage several times a day, of said fabric, praying and hoping it doesn’t sell out before you finish shopping and check out.

Since I was picking up a recent order at the warehouse, I was heading that way, and Amanda was so generous to show us around when we arrived. I met a few sewlebrities of mine, and yes, that stunning ombre fabric had a little bit of yardage left, of course two yards had to come home with me. Side note, the warehouse is mind blowing! The amount of fabric and the sheer quantities of orders moving through there really put into perspective how awesome they are. Since my family came along, we all got to see it and it was truly an enjoyable time for us all.

We got home from our trip and now it was time to make the dress. Sooo, sequins, yeah… I had no idea what I was doing with them. I decided to just take it slow and see what happened, anyone see a reoccurring theme for me? No idea what I’m doing, lots of firsts, and just trying it, slowly. Since I didn’t know how my machines would handle the sequins I decided to finish another top I had started before our trip, first, which left me with a day and a half before the event.  The fabric cut easily and shed the expected sequins. Then, as I was preparing to assemble the dress, I realized I accidentally cut out two back pieces, instead of one front and one back.

I had a moment of sheer panic as I unfolded the last remaining fabric to see if I could squeeze the needed front piece out. I literally had like 1” to spare.

Once my heart resumed its normal pace, I triple checked everything, and cut out the front piece. After that I decided to call it a night.

The day of the event arrived and I headed back into my sewing room determined to make this dress. My serger needles didn’t like the sequins; I bent/broke 7 of them while sewing up the two side seams.

After the first five broke, I seam ripped off some sequins in the seam allowance, to help, and was able to serge it up.

Then I ended up using a jean needle on my regular sewing machine for the rest of assembly and topstitching. It handled the sequins like a champ and I finished the dress with 2 hours to spare before the event.

Was it worth it? Absolutely, yes!  I learned so much from my first try at sequins and loved the way the dress ended up. I plan on investing in some different types of needles for my serger for my next go at sequined fabric. I used the straight hem, dress version, of the Kaitlyn by CKC Patterns. This was the 6^th time I have used the Kaitlyn pattern, it is definitely a favorite in my wardrobe. The exact fabric I used is out of stock, but I did see that there are others on the way. So if the sparkle caught your eye, be on the lookout. It was hard getting this gorgeous fabric to show properly in still photos, but you can see a quick video of the dress, on, here.