Silent Hill Nurse Costume

I looked online for a typical tan shirt dress but nothing was even close to what I wanted to make out for this nurse costume. I went to the halloween stores and the premade nurse outfits were tacky, over priced and looked wretched. So instead of a ready-made I opted for a pattern.

I used a McCalls pattern for a shirt dress. This is only my second time ever using a patter before. The first time ended horribly, even though I had help from some pretty awesome girls. (It was my fault the thing was DOOMED from the start). Right off the bat I started this wrong. I had choosen a pattern that was too small. I'm a pretty big girl, size 13 jeans and I'm usually a size 12 dress. But keep in mind if you are new to using patterns, the sizes do NOT relate! Please measure yourself first before buying a pattern. I know my measurements pretty well now and I knew better before hand but I was in a rush when the fabric store was closing so I just grabbed the pattern and bolted towards the register before the hordes of little old ladies and their mega cupons could tie up the lines. >.< I worked in a jo annes I know the drill!




I'm so Happy I talked myself into getting that dress form, it saves me from my mistakes! Ok. So I'm not the best pattern reader in the world...but I WAS able to cut out the pieces I needed for the dress, I think the creativity centers of my brain want to see if I am capable of figuring things out for myself so I ended up scrapping the patterns instructions and just winged it. LOL I know I know it was a mistake, but that is why we have seam rippers folks!

So far so good for winging it right....RIGHT??? Ok things that are wrong, the shoulders don't fit and the collar is too poufy...I knew knew there were different lengths for shoulders and backs. High Round, Low Round? Say whaaaaa? and I have NO idea how to figure out my back/shoulder dimensions so I guess it and just sewed the whole damn thing together. Its not perfect but at least I can fit my hideous Hulk arms and 'magic hump' in there. And no Magic Hump does not mean bewbies.


Speaking of Bewbies, I noticed my dress form lacks an adequate boulder holder adjuster. o.O Is this a thing? I decided to use a bra on my dress form and then stuffed it to try and make the bodice fit snugger, I think it worked. I'm out of velcro I think Velcro will really help to make the dress fit tighter as well. I really like distressing the fabrics, I soaked the dress in a mixture of hot water, tea bags, and inks. Then I dried the fabric and used a spray bottle with walnut inks to mist the dress as it was bunched up, you can't tell from the photos but there are some really pretty discoloring going on. I'm going to beef that up more when I get the nerve and more walnut ink. I think its shaping up rather nicely!