Saturday, July 25, 2009

Fit to be Tied



Well, I wasn't that badly disappointed when I finished this dress! My sewing is not without troubles. I really made some problems for myself while sewing this one. I had made some adjustments to this dress that messed up the sleeves so badly, I had to cut them off. I was really looking forward to this light blue dress with sleeves, using this fabric that I found in my mother's stash (I traded her some pink). Replacing boring ties, I did laced-up ribbon on the back.



I put two tucks in the front of the bodice, with some decorative stitching.


The vine stitch is repeated on edges of the dress. The way I turned this one into a jumper at the last minute (when I was too tired to make bias tape) was to serge and turn under the armhole edges 1/4 inch. The decorative stitching keeps it all nice and flat.



A tuck in the skirt echos the bodice. The vine stitch I used to hem up the bottom edge. Though I have been known to hand-hem a dress (great to do when company comes and you cannot run your sewing machine) I am all for getting this last bit done quickly.





Here is how I added the lace-up ribbon. Usually these little tabs go in a seam. If I had planned this a little more carefully, I would have made a false seam in the back to secure these. As it is, they are tacked on by hand.

I placed the loops above the pleats in the back. The ribbon will have to be taken out when the dress is washed, so it does not get all tangled up.


Pink Check Cottage Dress

This dress is made from a heavier-weight woven cotton from my mother's stash. The collar is bleached muslin, added from another pattern.

Despite adjustments, the collar did not meet in the back. So I added a box pleat at center back, which worked great, but required the sleeves to be re-drafted. The sleeves could have had matching cuffs, until I discovered that the scrap of muslin I was using for the collar did not match the one on the sleeves! I had two different muslins in my sewing basket. The "tint" difference was quite noticeable in daylight, so off went the cuffs.







The collar is trimmed in a simple pink zig-zag.




Stitching

A friend of mine was wondering what would happen if we threaded two different colored threads in one needle on the sewing machine. My guess was that there would be a big, tangled mess. However, I tried it and was really pleased with the results.



A Home for Ribbon Spools

I found this year that the large strawberry boxes were the perfect size for my ribbon collection.


It is not as elegant as a "real" ribbon box, of course, but it will do in the meantime!