F for Fashion reconstruction #42

According to Murphy's Law, "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong" and Drucker's Law states that "If one thing goes wrong, everything else will, at the same time".


The above statements are true for this fashion reconstruction project.


After the success of FR#39 (my baju kelawung) I thought I should create another piece but adopt a different approach ~ instead of creating the "wings" like a typical kaftan (sewn from the outside), I would attach the "wings" as I would any ordinary sleeves (sewn from the inside).


With this approach, there would not be any stitches along the "wings" as it did with my previous version. However, it turned out to be more difficult than I thought.


Here's why...


For this project, I picked another two-piece traditional Malay dress or baju kurung pesak I bought from my usual flea market in 2017.

It is of satin material and the fabric was still in good condition with the exception of the sergered parts (they're nylon!).


Since the fit was good, I thought that this would be a straightforward job i.e. all I had to do was to just rip the side seams of the sleeves and the pesak; remove the little square pieces (kekek) that joined the sleeves to the pesak; cut out a matching fabric for the "wings" and attach them to the sleeves and pesak; and then sew everything back from the inside to form my new dress.


Boy, oh boy! It was wishful thinking of me.


Why? Because I just had to complicate things. Since there was more than enough fabric from the skirt, I decided to make full use of it. Instead of a long flared dress, I opted for tiers instead.


Of course, it took me longer than I should to complete this dress because things were not as it seemed. I discovered that all the four pesak were not uniform ~ the front and back were not cut out the same size.


So, in the end, I had to rip the seams off the entire dress and remove all the sergered ends as well to rid of the nylon threads, and adjust the pesak so that they fit nicely on the main bodice.


So, back to square one!


I also realised that making a baju kurung pesak requires careful planning and execution. One wrong move and I would have to start all over again.


Also, because of the arrangement of the floral motifs, I had to make sure that I joined the right pieces together so that there would not be any overcrowding. I also had to make sure I followed proper sequence ~ which pieces needed to be sewn first before others.


Once I got everything figured out, it was much easier to move forward.


The most tricky part was to make sure that the seams were aligned ~ this is the part where I can never make it right the first time, no matter how many times I have practised.


During the fitting, I realised that the shoulders were a bit too wide for my frame ~ even half an inch made a big difference! So, I had to trim off the edges, reserger the ends and join the shoulders again.


All in all, this project took me a couple of weeks to complete.


I am quite satisfied with the outcome of the new dress although I much preferred it if there was lesser fabric to work on because I found it to be more challenging when working with less than more.


When I have limited fabric to start with, it is much easier to add on new fabric but when I have more than enough fabric, I just do not have the heart to discard or waste any.

Who could tell that this was a cut-and-paste project, if I had not disclosed the facts?


I can proudly say that you cannot find this item anywhere.  💃🐒👌🙋