Several dressmakers have created a guide or "How to" resource to share their insights in ID dressmaking with others. These guides are wonderful for those who are starting or have just started to make their first dress. They are also a very good resource for those who wish to improve their dressmaking skills. I thought it might be useful to list them here.

I would like to give a big THANK YOU to all the dressmakers patient and kind enough to write down their process. I know they saved me many years of research!

Basic dressmaking/construction guides:
Anita Moyes dancingoneire.com . . .
Aylwen Garden www.earthlydelights.com.au . . .
Colleens of Canberra www.colleensofcanberra.com . . .

Patterns with instructions:
Pat from Irish Threads www.irishthreads.com
Susan Gowin from Feisdress www.feisdress.com . . .

Construction issues:
Part 1: taoknitter.blogspot.com . . .
Part 2: taoknitter.blogspot.com . . .
Part 3: taoknitter.blogspot.com . . .

Ask all your questions on:
www.voy.com . . .
FAQ link: www.voy.com . . .

Designs and designer resource:
www.colleensofcanberra.com

These are all I can think of right now from the top of my head. If I have missed any, please let me know and I will add them!

Great post, thank you for putting this all together! Do I smell sticky??

Brilliant! Thanks for assembling all that info.

You did leave out psychiatric help (because you have to be nuts to get into this business!) www.psywww.com . . .

lol - though i do know of some people who were actually fairly sane when they made their first dress - just kinda stumbling into it by accident. But THEN the dresses DROVE them insane.

Molly - do your dress talk to you too?

Dresses do not speak to me, but the fabrics....now, that's another story. I cannot enter a fabrics store without hearing all these little voices: "Pick me! pick me! I will be a beautiful dress....!"

Does that ever happen to you Jess?
btw, gorgeous OTR!!!

^^ Yes, Jitch, the dresses do speak to me - that's why I give them all personal names - but it's mostly subversive things like "Eat the chocolate! Eat the chocolate!"

yes fabrics speak to me to. I walk into a fabric store and I can hear them all shouting and screaming at me. And the sales assistants wonder why I crouch behind the pattern stand covering my ears yelling "the voices, make them stop, make them STOP!!!"

My dresses steal invisible thread that I just put down.. and hide pattern pieces behind chests of drawers. And hide bottles of glue i look everywhere for then put them back on the cutting table where I just looked.

Making a solo dress can be enormously challenging and exceptionally exasperating.

Normal stress reduction techniques (Yoga, Red Wine, and Dark Chocolate) may not measure up to the task at hand.

For those situations in which you become befuddled, frazzled, or simply stark raving bonkers, you may have to resort to the “Solo Dress Stress Reduction Tool”

Jess, my tailors dummies talk to me, they are Elenor and Nestor. They tell me who steals my scissors
Btw who says that its us who are insane. I think people who hear fabric talk are the normal ones and Elenor and Nestor agree

So far, I have not been insane enogh to try this however now that there is dress making for dummies I should try it on something small and work up to it. I can sew just have no patience. Thanks for the help!? I will make sure I have the extras needed should I attempt this at home, stress blue dot for wall, big bottle of wine and bigger bottle of asprin! LOL

My dummy is called 'Tilly' she's a great companion as she doesn't answer back when I'm complaining about things.

Fabric screams at me too Jess I am a self confessed 'Fabraholic' and proud of it....have been from a very early age, which is too long ago to mention on a family board

Annie xxx

I agree-there must be solo dress goblins loose in my sewing room who steal scissors, tape measures, applique pieces-how many times do you have one and not the other and you just cut it!!??
As for sequins-I spot check everyone's feet when they leave the house now to make sure they don't have sparkly tag-alongs.
The neighbour's kids always seem to go home with something pretty stuck to them though-however the 6 year old loves it-comes back and says "can I keep this?" (sequin)

thanks for the websites. I personally found 'feisdress' and 'taoknitter' very useful. BTW my dress form is called Dolly, not very original but she is a godsend.

very helpful post

Unfortunately, most of these links do not work anymore.

Colleens of Canberra is sadly no longer running and Ann a.k.a. Taoknitter has migrated her blog.
You can read her new blog here:
taoknitterarts.com

If you need more help regarding dress issues or a place to talk about it, visit the Celtic flame Voy board:
www.voy.com . . .

or join the Yahoo ID dressmaking group:
groups.yahoo.com . . .

And you can ALWAYS ask your questions here on DDN of course!

My mum has just made my sister a dress and is really proud of it she says she might go in to buisness you go mommy!

Hello, I am so very new to this forum - and am enjoying all of the wonderful posts! I wonder, though, if this Sticky should be edited. At least half of the links listed are 'broken'. Maybe some of the more experienced here can help us newbies learn if the site is actually gone or just has a new address.
Thanks!

I fixed the "Diary of a Daft Dressmaker" links at the top to direct folks to the pages on the newer dressmaking blog which is taoknitter.wordpress.com.

Thanks to Caroline, as always!

Dresses speak to me too. I went to the national's this year to watch one of my good friends, but I stayed to watch all the girls in her competition because I love looking at the dresses. And don't get me near a dress sale rack - I will try on every one that is even remotely close to my size, and I don't even dance anymore! Gosh I just love dresses. Ever since I made one of my own, I've been dying to do it again...

And all of my dresses have names and stories that go along with them!!! Each one has been special.