Phew - finished!

The dress is finished - with time to spare! L collected her dress tonight, unfortunately things have been happening to work against her and she can't go after all! She is not happy about it but I have quite enjoyed making her dress and hopefully she will be able to wear it on another occasion.As with most things, it looks much better on but I was unable to get a photo of her wearing it. I will post one if I get the chance but flat hanging shots will have to suffice for now.

Tomorrow I will start work on Simplicity 2603 that I have cut out. I think I will leave the edges unhemmed, as it is a knit it won't ravel and I think it may hang better without stitching - we shall see.

Work on the dress - at work!

One of the pro's of being my own boss is that I got to spend some of yesterday sewing 'L's ball dress while I should have been working! (one of the con's is that no one else will pick up the slack! It was all waiting for me this morning Lol) It also helps that the friend I am making the dress for is my business partners daughter!

I made good progress on the dress; I had already interlined the bodice pieces with a lining fabric, I made my own fusible bias tape and fused it to the interlining (silly me didn't think to measure though and when I stitched my 5/8" seam I missed the fusible altogether!).

I stitched the bodice and lining pieces together, understitched the neckline and armhole edges as far as I could reach, made the piping for the empire seam and made the drape.

The drape turned out to be much easier than I expected, I folded the fabric in half along the bias to make a triangle and then stitched both sides, leaving a small opening at the tip of the triangles - the drape will be stitched in to the shoulders about 11" down from each point so I knowI will be cutting some off.I have fitted the skirt and today (another work day!!) will overlock the edges - we are not lining the skirt as the fabric is so heavy - and stitch the skirt to the bodice. Tonights job will be to insert the invisible zip (oh what fun, with a piped seam to have to match it might take me all night!) L will come for a fitting later on this evening and we will sort out the hem length with her shoes and also make a final decision on how long she wants the drape. With luck all I will have left to do on Friday is stitch the drape in at the shoulders (which I have left open) and hem it. I am going to do a rolled hem on the overlocker because I don't want to machine it and hand stitches will show - plus I don't have a lot of time!

I will post photos once it is finished!

Eta; I didn't get anything done at work as I had forgotten my tool for taking the 2nd needle out of my overlocker and it just didn't stitch well with two needles but only one threaded! I could have used 4 threads to neaten but didn't think about that til later - duh!

I have started...

...work on the school ball dress for my friend. In the photo you can see the lovely fabric she has chosen, oyster coloured heavy satin with a lovely chocolate brown as the hood lining and the band under the bust. The pattern - BWOF 12/08 #109 - has a shawl collar and is empire line - I am hoping I can extend the collar to make it into a hood, she said she wants it to look like the kind of hood there is on a graduation gown, I think they are pointed? Will have to research that a bit - never having graduated!

I have almost finished tracing the pattern, we are using the skirt style from BWOF 12/08 #104 and shortening it to knee length. My first job will be to make a muslin - of course :-) 'L' has slim hips but is generous in the bust area and I will probably need to alter for that - I hope the style doesn't cause problems with being too revealing, time will tell - and I don't have much of that! As this is a quick job and the satin is so heavy, we have decided not to line the skirt part of the dress, just the bodice.

Tomorrow I will have a play with some muslin and see if I can come up with an extension of the collar to make the hood, I don't think she wants to wear it, just have it as a feature - but I had better check that first!