Top 5's of 2013, part 3: Hits and Misses

Time to look back at what I actually made this year! Let's start with the hits, shall we?

Top 5 Hits of 2013: 
1. My wedding dress, aka the "One Dress To Rule Them All"! Yes, I only wore it once, but this was easily the most time-consuming and expensive thing I've ever sewn, so I have to include it, right? Plus, I never showed a really good full shot of the finished product, so here's my excuse to share some of the professional pics. Don't worry, they gave me the copyright as part of the photo package! We did get a couple of outdoor shots, but the lighting on the ones inside the church actually shows off the details of the dress better, so I went with those.

At Gillian's request, I'm including a mini top 5 of things I learned or loved about making my wedding dress.

a) I loved working with the fabrics! It's not every day that I can justify using a whole bunch of different silks, so this was both a lot of fun and a very big learning experience.

b) I learned and/or developed skills in a lot of different couture techniques. I'd worked with underlining before, for instance, but this had underlining, sometimes multiple layers of underlining, boning (and not the cheap plastic kind ,either!), regular lining, the works! So I think my handstitching improved quite a bit in this process!

c) I love that I was able to design an entire dress around that sunflower lace, since the only two things I'd wanted for my future wedding for ages was having sunflowers, and making my dress! So I got to combine them! I also love that my pattern modifications to the Cambie top worked so well for really showing it off. (Now I just need to figure out what to do with the rest of it, because I have probably at least 3 yards left! Any ideas?)

d) I learned that sometimes muslins, or even multiple muslins, are a necessary evil. I'm really glad I allowed myself the time to do that. My usual attitude towards them is to try to make them as wearable as possible, or just skip them altogether, because I have so little sewing time and "ain't nobody got time for that." But I'm glad I really took the time to perfect the fit before I started--especially since I was just barely able to squeak out the skirt with the yardage I had estimated! Plus, now whenever I do get around to making a "real" Cambie, I have it all modified and ready to go. Assuming I can find those muslin pieces. Gah.

(Disclaimer: I'm still probably going to stick more with wearable muslins for most things, because I still mostly don't want to take the time for that.)

e) I love that being able to sew helped me keep the costs down significantly! All together, I think the supplies ended up costing about $500. I think the most expensive fabric I got was the dupioni for the outside, at around $16 a yard. Given that I have a hard time paying more than $12 a yard for most fabrics, that's a LOT. But at the average bridal shop around here, that would get you a pretty low-end polyester dress. Mine was silk, custom-fitted, and I didn't have to deal with sorting through all of the trains and strapless bodices to find something I was ok with!

And now, on with the rest of the hits...

2. The Thurlow trousers. I'm quite happy with the fit, they're very comfortable, and I've worn them at least once a week since I finished them. In fact, I've washed and worn them so much that the fabric is already starting to pill on the thighs a bit! Not a huge loss, since this was only ever intended to be a wearable muslin, and the fabric was free, but that means I may have to make a new brown pair sooner than I thought. (After I finish the other 4 pairs that I actually bought fabric for.)

 










3. The TARDIS Hummingbird-esque skirt. Subtle geekiness for the win! This got a lot of love on Flickr (by my standards, which is pretty much anyone commenting at all), and I'm always happy when my pattern alterations turn out as I envision them. Plus, since it's basically a denim skirt, I have a feeling this is going to be a rather versatile addition to my wardrobe!














4. My plaid flannel shirt. Even though I'm still not a huge fan of the collar, it's warm and cozy, which is exactly what I need in my life right now. I'm also still feeling a bit smug about how many sewalongs I was able to apply this to! (And now I'm wondering if it's a crime against fashion to wear flannel shirts that aren't plaid, because I want a lot more flannel in my life!)















5. The purple Sadie tank top, which has proved to be quite versatile, even though it's not the most exciting thing I sewed this year. (Aaaaahhhh, look how sunny and warm it is there! Much nicer than looking out the window--it's actually pretty unseasonably warm here today, but it's also grey and rainy, which is why I'm home to finish this post. Work is soooooo sloooooow on rainy days that the manager told me to stay home!)

Thankfully, since I didn't have a huge output this year, I don't feel like I really had a lot of misses as far as my actual finished projects went. So I'm taking a slightly more tongue-in-cheek approach to this.

Top 5 misses of 2013:

1. The one true sewing fail I had this year was my Pavlova cardigan--the one that tore apart in the washer before I even had a chance to take a photo of me wearing it. I hardly even got a chance to wear it, either. Despite my usual cold-blooded ways, I was sufficiently comfortable both indoors and out to not wear it at all while I was in Jamaica, so I only wore it on the plane there and back. If I were to be honest, it didn't turn out as cute and flattering as I'd hoped, either. I still plan to make a Pavlova top again, but maybe more of a wrap top as intended. Or with knit fabric so it drapes better.

2. My timing in finishing my Tiramisu dress. It's not the dress itself, because I do like it. And if I'd made it earlier in the fall or even the summer, I think it would have been worn a lot more. But I only wore it once, because it got too cold almost as soon as I'd finished it! I'm definitely not one of those people who can go short-sleeved in the cold. I wonder how it would look with my brown corduroy jacket--too much brown in the middle?

3. Online fabric shopping. This wasn't a 100% fail. I did manage to find the right shade of nude organza for the wedding dress. I do like the rayon challises that I picked up for a couple of dresses that I didn't get to this year. And I recently got some organic cotton knit that is super-soft and I think it will make a great basic black maxidress next year! But I did have multiple issues here, from trying to find a solid emerald green to make wedding accessories (color of the year, huh?!), to the paisley I'd intended for a Darling Ranges dress that looked quite different when it arrived, to the stretch denim I recently ordered that looked like teal, but showed up more of a robin's egg blue and a lot thinner than I'd anticipated! And, of course, I also recently had issues in buying both fabric and yarn online, because in both cases, the website said they had more in stock than they actually had by the time they got to processing my orders. Both times, I had to make substitutions for things that cost more money. Aside from higher cost, the most annoying thing in both cases was that they were things I'd spent hours searching for in order to avoid wool! Blasted allergy...anyway. Hopefully I'll have more hits on that count next year, since I can't necessarily rely on Joann's to have what I need or want.

4. Pantsapalooza. It's not that I regret doing it, though I think I really could/should have managed the sewalong aspect of it much, much better. I guess since it was my first time hosting one, it's a learning experience, right? And I did get usable trousers, but only one pair out of my intended five. So that's not a palooza, that's just pants! (Guess what I'm most likely sewing first in January...)

5. Buying vs. using. Yes, a few of these were projects I intended to get to quickly--my Darling Ranges dress that I actually bought fabric for twice (see #3 above), or the Reglisse dress that I found the perfect print for almost right away, for instance. And then the summer just disappeared. A few of these I actually did get to right away--I'm thinking specifically of the Hummingbird pattern, since I actually managed to jump in on the official sewalong and use up some stash to boot! And I did buy and use the plaid flannel in a timely fashion, which is unusual for me. But overall, I think I acquired a lot more fabrics and patterns this year than I have in recent years past, and didn't necessarily use things up in a way to balance that out. (And it's not even Christmas yet, and I can usually expect to get fabric for Christmas from my mom, too!) My husband and I are planning to really crack down on the budget come January so we can pay off some debt and save for some things we're hoping to do, so this is something I really need to get under control again, and focus more on using what I have and being creative with it. (Incidentally, I loved the idea of the Sewcial Bee that I did last year, since it forced me to jump on fabric and patterns that were already in the stash! I hear rumors that there's going to be more next year, and I hope that's true!)

I did also lose track of yardage in vs. out this year, which is something I've been trying to keep track of. If I do succeed in my plan to get the room straightened up to start the new year, I do plan to re-tally everything that has significant yardage (like a yard or more) so I can start keeping tabs on that again.

Honorable mention: My #greendecember project. I got it cut out, then got caught up in a secret sewing frenzy, so that's as far as it got. But it only gets honorable mention, because it's another Renfrew top, which means there is a chance I can still actually get it sewed up before January 1!

shameless pluggery

Or, in which my sewing, for once, has excellent timing!

I happened upon a little blurb in Craftsy's Twitter feed yesterday, stating that they're having a contest for wedding-related crafts. And, as you all know, I have a wedding dress! The project with the most hearts wins a free Craftsy class. So if you wouldn't mind taking a few minutes to hop on over here and vote for my dress, I'd greatly appreciate it! My user name there is sunnyb64, and voting is only open until this Sunday, the 14th.

(In the interest of full disclosure, the class I'm eyeing is the recently added "Adjust The Bust". Considering that I have never been able to successfully do an FBA, despite multiple attempts/reading multiple books and blog posts, and this very project took me 4 muslins to figure out due to this very issue, I think I need it!)

The post you've all been waiting for!

I mean, I'm assuming you do want to see that little dress project that took up nearly a year's worth of planning and postings on here, right?

So, at last: the One Dress to Rule Them All. And other handmade wedding goodness. (These aren't the professional pics, so I may come back and edit this post to add some of those later. But these are featuring the shots that I was able to get from my family and friends. I'm also making these larger than usual.)



Full-length dress shot! This is me with my friend/honorary bridesmaid Nicole. I wasn't able to have her as part of the wedding party, but she did the artwork for my invitations and programs, and also did my hair!






















Another full-length shot, this time from the first dance. You can see the border sunflowers a little better on this one, I think.



























Ceremony shot- not the best expression on my face, but it's a good closer view of the bodice. And Doug's tie. And my bouquet!


This was as we were all leaving the church--and a great shot of the back!
Me and two of my bridesmaids/long-time best friends, Cassie and Julie. The headbands turned out ok after all!
Proof that the TARDIS/R2-D2 shoes made an appearance! We all changed into them after we were done with the outdoor bridal party pictures.

And I'm just including this shot because I think it's fun, even though I look like I'm posing for one of those old Sure deodorant commercials! The DJ had Doug and I do this game where we each had to sit back to back while holding one of our shoes and one of the other's shoes, and raise the shoe for the person we were answering for. I'm pretty sure this one was "which person has the crazier friends." (I love my crazy friends!)

So there you have it--I hope the post was worth the wait!

(In case you're newer to reading this blog, a few quick project notes: The bodice and waistband are based on Sewaholic's Cambie dress. I modified it to make the upper back and sleeve caps sheer, and changed the darts to princess seams for fitting reasons. The skirt is from Simplicity 2442, modified to lower the waist. I also used a lengthened version of the Sewing Cake Pavlova skirt for the tulle underlayer. And if you want to see all of the construction posts and notes and multiple muslin attempts, you can click here.) 

The end is....

here!!! It took me hand-stitching straight up to midnight, because I was so easily distracted while sewing, but the dress is officially DONE!

I'm going to wait to do the big final reveal pictures until after the wedding, because then I'll have the best pictures with my hair all done up nice and out of the way. But I do have two last detail shots from the lining, courtesy of my phone, since I've been working on this in the evenings over the last 2 days while it's been too dark to use the nice camera.

I did a narrow machine hem all around the lining--partially to speed up the process, and partially to practice the technique. I have another friend getting married this year, she already has her dress, and it fits perfectly other than it being too long, so I told her I'd hem it for her. She's practically my honorary bridesmaid, so I don't mind.

I also have a bustle, sort of--I discovered after pinning in and partially sewing the lining that the center back was hanging past the hem of the dress! At this point, I've stopped caring about perfection and just wanted to finish, so rather than rip out and redo that portion of the hem, I figured no one will see it but me, so I just tacked that up and secured it under the zipper.

I did have one tiny little mishap last night, where I was trimming a thread sticking out next to the zipper, and accidentally nicked the skirt with my scissors! I'm rather proud of myself for staying calm--it was small and hardly noticeable thanks to the zipper seam allowance underneath, so I just stuck some fray check on it this morning and left it at that. Trying to mend it would have made it more noticeable, and I don't think anyone will know except for me (and now all of you who read this.)

So, aside from the final reveal, that's it! Thanks to all of you who have followed along on this massive project and left encouraging words. And you bet my next couple of projects are going to be much less complicated!

good news, bad news

The good news: There is a possibility that I could conceivably finish The Dress this week. Next week at the latest.

I took this pic on my phone, which may be why it's not cooperating to orient right, despite having tried to fix it on Flickr. So ignore the gravity-defying act. You can't really see it too well in his shot, but there's ribbon hangers on the dress now-- I wanted to reduce the strain on the lace when it's hanging. The bodice is now fully lined, and the back has its hook and eye. The waist stay is also half sewn-in, along the bodice lining edge, which means the tulle is in the skirt as well.

I had an unexpected day off today due to a freak snowstorm (yeah, that's right, it's been spring for almost a week and NOW we get snow?), so I spent a good bit of time sewing the skirt lining together. It's currently the second row of stitching on one French seam + the hem away from being done. And this is where we get into the bad news: I currently don't have a working sewing machine. It was the weirdest thing. I finished the first half of the French seaming process, minus the back seam to make pressing easier, turned the machine off to go eat lunch...and then I guess it decided to go on strike, because when I came back, it wouldn't turn on again. It had been working perfectly fine before that, so I really don't understand what happened! I tried it in a couple of different outlets, checked all the plugs, etc. My mom had a spare machine that I could use to continue sewing, thankfully. But my dad, who is pretty good with mechanical things, took a look at it, and he's pretty sure it's an electrical issue. And not just a blown fuse. So I'm going to have to run up to the closest repair shop sometime this weekend and see if it's a fixable one--which makes me rather nervous, because I've gotten rather spoiled on my hand-me-down Bernina, and if it's not fixable, I'm not sure how I'm going to replace it!

the end is near

I have to admit, I was feeling a major sense of burnout near the end of last week. Realizing that I've been working exclusively on the same project for a solid six months was kind of bothering me, as was the feeling that I'm missing out on a lot of online sewing world fun with all of the new pattern releases and sewalongs and such. I'm really thankful for all of you who have still been following along with me on this project, leaving comments, and generally not getting bored by all of my in-progress posts!

I'm also thankful that I waited until this stage of the project to cut out the lining, because although cutting out is usually one of my least favorite things about sewing, it did make it feel like a bit of a fresh project.

I still have not sewed on that hook and eye. Which, now that I'm thinking about it, I should do ASAP because of what I have been working on today. But thanks to a day off of work on Tuesday, and again today, I have made some noticeable progress!
I did decide that some tulle to help give the skirt some body would be necessary. My original plan had been just to do a gathered rectangle with tiers, but I woke up on Saturday morning with the thought that I should probably keep the bulk down as much as possible. So the logical conclusion was that perhaps I should think about more of a circle skirt. Since my drafting skills are still rather abysmal, I decided to break out my Pavlova pattern that had recently arrived in the mail, and just trace that out in a lengthened form. It seemed to work pretty well, and when I pinned it into the dress and tried it on, it added just the right amount of poof! Of course, since I bought the tulle with the assumption of gathering and needing a lot of length, this means I have probably 8 yards of white tulle that will now need to go into the stash!

From my "Fashion Inspiration" pinterest board

Maybe I should consider making something like this? I mean, what else am I going to do with a bunch of tulle, since the decorations are already pretty much set? Anyway.



























I also still need to put a waist stay into the dress, which I'm also going to use as the waistband in the lining. I want to sandwich the tulle between the skirt lining and the outer dress, so to make it easier later, I just went ahead and zig-zagged it to about the center of the petersham ribbon. I figured that would allow for a little more give, and still give me the space to hand-stitch the bodice and skirt linings to the waist stay. Notice that I did manage to get the hooks and eyes on that, but I ran out of time for the dress at that point. Plus I kept dropping the eyes. I think I still have two of them buried in my carpet somewhere.
I got the lining all cut out on Tuesday (with more leftovers to use up later, dangit!), but totally cheated on the couture end of it--no thread tracing this time, I just stuck my seam allowance guide on the scissors, pinned on the muslin pieces, and went for it.  (Note--this was my first time using it, and it was pretty nifty.) I did use my tracing paper for the neckline and darts, but that was it. And then last night, I didn't have a whole lot of time, but I tried the half hour sewing session thing and managed to get all of the bodice lining pieces sewn together. Today has been mostly  finishing seams and pressing so far.


Which leads me to its current state. The lining is pretty sheer, so things like the tannish woven selvedge that I left on the one side of the bodice as a stable edge are showing through. Oops. But by this point, I'm not bothered enough by it to undo the catch stitching, trim it off, and redo it. Hopefully between that and the tulle, my skirt still won't be too see-through...

Pictureless update

Just a quick update post:

I finished the last of the 23 lace appliques today!

I also put it on Donna, and it looks like I don't have to tweak the hem. Whew.

Now, I'm one hook and eye away from finishing the outside of the dress entirely. Next step: Figuring out how to do a waist stay and tulle petticoat, while still leaving room to attach the lining to the waist stay, because I also figure that can substitute for the waistband piece on the inside and therefore add one less layer.

Also, it's a good thing I wasn't planning on sewing last night, because all of the brouhaha about Google Reader shutting down was very distracting. Thankfully, the Twitter sewcialists were quick to point out options for those of us who used it for our blog reading. (Of course, this does make me wonder if Blogger will be on the chopping block at some point too...)

Edit: I've started using Feedly and like it so far, but for those of you who use Bloglovin', here's how you can follow me on there:

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Hemming time!

As of last Thursday, the outer hem of the dress is done. It ended up being a bit of a process, since as you can see here, I didn't do the greatest job of adding equal amounts of fabric to the skirt pieces. Fortunately, I had a little more seam allowance to work with than I'd originally thought, because I did end up getting talked into getting a different pair of shoes. Which are far more comfortable than the original silver ones, and have a lower heel. They're also dyeable, so I'm wondering what color I should turn them into after the wedding! It's not often my extra-wide feet will allow me the luxury of colorful shoes! I'm thinking maybe teal, because I do wear quite a bit of that.

I decided to use horsehair braid for a little extra body to the hem, and I also decided to use some lace on the inside to even up the hem allowance--it varied from about 1.25" to maybe 6"! And my horsehair is 2", so you can do the math. It didn't take too terribly long to add the lace, since I did use the machine to attach it the the hem allowance and only needed to hand-sew the actual hem. After all that and the extra bulk of the horsehair, it did end up being a little too narrow of a hem to encase it completely, but it was pretty close and it really just looks like an extension of the lace. Since this is basically functioning as hem tape, I didn't want to spend a whole lot of money on the lace, so I was pleased to find this vaguely sunflowerish pattern at Joann's that was the same width as my horsehair.

After pressing, I concluded that I do need to do some tulle underlayering. The skirt does need a little poofiness--see how it caves in on that left side, which is actually the front? I also discovered that the seams do show through in the light, which means my legs will too, so hopefully that plus the lining will add enough opacity to counteract that.  Hopefully I can figure out how to sandwich it in without adding too much bulk in the waistband--I'm thinking maybe some tiers are in order. I also need to figure out how to make the waist stay, and what the best way is to deal with that and the lining.

Friday's project, other than pressing, was to pin the sunflower appliqués that I've cut out around the edge, about 3" from the hem. I was able to space them pretty evenly, but seriously overestimated how many I would need--I used 23 and cut out 40! But at least it gave me something to do during tv time. And it also means I can give you a sneak peek of what the final project will look like!

Ta-da! Please ignore the mess in the room, aka wedding planning central, and focus on the pretty dress, ok? The sunflowers can't be seen too well, but they're mostly only pinned on for now anyway.

I'm not sure how long it will take me to sew all of these on--as of the time I'm writing this, I have 4 done, and after the first one, I figured out a way to work on multiple flowers at the same time by doing it in rows. It's also easier, because I don't have to rotate the skirt and can work in vaguely straight lines. The difficulty is that I got called back to my garden shop job, starting tomorrow, so my sewing time has to cut way back after today. (I'm quite thankful I've had these 2+ months to get this far, or I'd be freaking out!) So I'm not sure when I'll have anything worth posting about again, until this part is done. In the meantime, I need to ponder what to do with the 3ish yards of this sunflower lace that I still have left! Any suggestions?

A few small things

• No finished project post yet. I still have been unable to take a picture, but I will as soon as I can.
• Do you ever have dreams about sewing? I do, sometimes. Last night's was that I made a Tiramisu dress. Except that for some reason, subconscious me decided to pair just the skirt from it (in a navy blue jersey) with a sheer, woven coral thrifted button-down with a peplum. Which a) I do not own such a garment, and b) dream-me had it as one giant v down to the waist. Which I would never, ever do in the real world. At least subconscious me did ok with the color pairing. (Incidentally, I do have a mental plan to make a test tiramisu in navy blue jersey, since I have some jersey bedsheets to play with.)
• Today is my birthday. I'm 32 now. That sounds so weird.
• The Swap Your Stash was fairly successful for me! I didn't get rid of everything, but I did have requests for about a third of what I'd posted. And most of those were things that I had either already made things out of and was therefore stuck, or things I couldn't use at all (like accidentally pink silk!) I've sent out 4 pieces to 3 people, am waiting on addresses for 2 more, and so far I've received one package, from Anne in the UK. I'm not sure how this will end up as far as yardage in vs. out goes, but I tried to be very thoughtful in the things I swapped for, so hopefully I will end up with things that are much more useful for me!
• My future sewing room is coming together very nicely. Doug and I spent last Friday night moving my sewing machine table to his place--I haven't been using it lately, because I get way too cold in the basement this time of year and have therefore been doing all of my sewing upstairs, like I tend to do every winter. We also did some organizing in there. Most of my scrapbook/jewelry related things are there now, as well as a little fabric and probably about half of my yarn. We've also been discussing fabric storage options, and stumbled across a good option on sale at Target. So we're probably going to spend this Friday evening moving the bulk of my remaining fabric stash and organizing that. Assuming I get done the dress in enough time to actually sew something else before the wedding, I figure I can just stop by his place and grab the fabric that I want.
• Speaking of the dress, I'm now working on the hemming stage! I also spent some time over the weekend cutting out lace appliques for the skirt. 

I think that's everything for now...back to work.

back details

I'm keeping this one fairly short today-- just wanted to show some details of the back that I've been working on over the last few days, as told on Twitter.

Button bling! #onedresstorulethemall twitter.com/sew_and_so/sta…
— Becky (@sew_and_so) February 21, 2013

Yes, that's right, I made my own hashtag. And yes, I also realized as soon as I'd posted it the first time that it looks like my dress is ruling the mall. Oh well. Anyway, my mom gets the credit for finding these fabulous rhinestone buttons, because I was having a really hard time finding ones that weren't pearls. No offense to those of you that like that, but pearls just really aren't my thing.

Yesterday's #onedresstorulethemall work: hand picked zipper prettiness. twitter.com/sew_and_so/sta…
— Becky (@sew_and_so) February 21, 2013

I actually had to do the wider side of it twice--the first time, I got it a little too close to the zipper and it was showing all over the place. It still shows a bit at the very top, but I've also discovered that if I unzip it about a quarter inch or so, the overlay hides it rather well. So I think I'm going to do that with a hook and eye at the top of the dupioni section.

@sewaholicdotnet it's not done yet, but I wanted to show you the mods I made to the Cambie for the wedding dress! twitter.com/sew_and_so/sta…
— Becky (@sew_and_so) February 22, 2013

And here's a view of the back! It doesn't quite button at the top when Donna's wearing it (I have a thread loop there), and the zipper shows much more on her. I spent at least a good half-hour on Friday walking around in it and standing on a chair so my mom could pin up the outer hem, and it fits me much better. I didn't actually do any sewing on Friday, since we were also messing around with centerpiece ideas, but I did spend a couple of hours cutting out sunflowers from the lace to sew on the skirt. So, minus that, the hook and eye, and the hem, the outside of the dress is done! I still need to cut out and sew/install the lining, but I'm waiting until the hem is done, since I'm not sure if I'll need to add some tulle layers for fullness and I need to see how the hem will fall first.

And guess what? I have an actual finished project to show! But I need to take some pictures first...

almost a dress

I can't quite say yet that it's almost a finished dress, since I haven't cut out the lining yet. But it's no longer a 2-piece ensemble, at least!

Since my last post that directly related to the wedding dress, I've gotten quite a bit done. All of the skirt seams have been sewn, graded, pressed and catch-stitched to the underlining, except for the center back seam. The skirt and bodice are now attached to each other, as well! I ended up having to do a little sizing tweaking, because I've got the seam allowances from both the bodice and skirt finished towards the waistband, and that added a little bulk around my waist. In hindsight, perhaps I should have pressed the bodice edges up rather than down--I still think finishing the skirt towards the waistband will be better for supporting the weight of it--but what's done is done, and I tried to grade things so that there's as little added bulk as possible so I can't go back and undo that part and change that. Even so, this waistband is now holding seam edges from 5 layers of bodice (lace, dupioni, crepe de chine and 2 layers of organza), plus 2 layers of skirt (dupioni & crepe de chine, though there's also the actual seam allowances in there which doubles that). So I think I can be forgiven for needing to add a little extra in the back. Especially since I've been mostly consistent with at least getting in one workout a week since Christmas, and given my general lack of athleticism, that's actually really good for my track record!

Of course, this meant that I also needed to do some hand-attaching of the waistband in the back, since I hadn't quite sewn far enough to factor in that possibility. And I did need to add a patch of lace on one side, because I'd just barely had enough to cover on that side. Oops.

So, here's the picture of the inside (I was trying it on inside out to figure out exactly where this back seam and zipper need to go.)


















And here's a partial shot of the outside-with-skirt! Notice anything else? That's right, the straps are now attached as well. I pinned those at the same time and hand-stitched them down, putting some beeswax on the thread for a little extra strength. (Perhaps I should have done that all along. The silk thread is still better about not tangling, but this was even better!)










 
That's the other thing I've been doing, finishing those edges, again minus the center back. I went with the majority vote from my poll and did the hairline seam finish, with a hand-stitched last seam. Brooke suggested wash/steam-away thread as well, so I did do that. I'm not sure it entirely disappeared after the pressing/steaming, since it was entrapped in those layers and I couldn't set the iron temperature very high for fear of scorching the lace, but it still looks better than I think the silk thread would have.

The center back seam is partially sewn closed now, and I'm currently working on figuring out the lapped zipper. I do have some wide seam allowances to work with, and a good-looking tutorial on my sewing pinboard, so hopefully that will help me out. (Yeah, remember that Check The Technique thing I've been doing? Lapped zippers are on that list of things I'm not entirely comfortable doing, particularly since I've probably attempted this particular type of zipper the least. Unless you count separating zippers. Come to think of it, I'll need to update that post for underlining after I finish this thing!) I do know that the trickiest part of this particular lapped zipper will be dealing with the sheer edges that start right above it, without making them look uneven. But I do plan on hand-picking this zipper, so that means I can take it nice and slow and hopefully do it right.

That won't finish the outside. I need to add buttons, particularly at the top of the sheer part where I do need a functional closure. I'll need to hem it. And I still want to put those lace sunflower appliques somewhere around the lower circumference of the skirt. But, minus that last part, it's looking like I may be able to at least finish the outside of this dress before I go back to work.  Here's hoping!

The problem with winter clothes...

Happy February, everyone! First of all, thanks to everyone who has taken the time to vote on my little poll in the last post! There's been 19 answers so far, with the hairline seam taking the clear lead. Brooke suggested some nifty thread that vanishes with an iron steaming, so I think I'm going to get some of that and run with it. I probably need another spool of white anyway, considering that I'll have to start busting into that for basting and such. I've been using my one spool of ecru for that and the inside seam finishing, in order to save the white for where it shows, and reached the point where I'm about half a skirt's basting away from running out.  In other exciting dress news, I'm at the point where I can start basting the skirt together! The waistband is on the bodice as of yesterday, and the seam between them is all stitched down nicely.  Out of necessity, I'm waiting to do the center back edge finishing (and therefore the neckline's too) until I get the zipper in. The last time I checked it, the placement of the side seams were great but there was too much room at the upper back of the dupioni part, so I'd like to have the skirt on so I can check the fit all at once.

From my Fashion Inspiration Pinterest page

But back to the subject at hand. I was thinking about this last night, as I was browsing the women's fashion section of Pinterest while half-watching a hockey game with Doug. I should probably say problems in the plural, because as far as I go, there's quite a few:

1. I have basically no internal temperature regulation this time of year, no matter how unseasonably warm it gets. For example; on Wednesday, it got up to 66 degrees. Practically balmy, right? While I did manage to brave 3/4 sleeves, I ended up keeping my favorite bulky brown hoodie cardigan on all day, too. And I was STILL cold enough to drink several mugs' worth of tea.

2. The obvious answer would be to wear wool. But I can't touch it without my hands prickling uncomfortably within seconds, and the one wool hat I've owned made my forehead break out in a line of hives. (Ironically, my soon-to-be last name contains this very fiber name! I'm going to be allergic to myself!)

3. If the Polyvore-type sets that abound on Pinterest, such as the one above, are any indication, winter clothes are just boooooring. Everything is solid and neutral, mostly grey, black and taupe. I can appreciate a good piece in the first two colors, but isn't winter in the northern hemisphere dull and neutral enough?
Where's the color? Where are the prints? Incidentally, I'm pretty bored with everything in my closet too, and kind of resent that it'll be at least another 2 months before I can consider diving back into my shorter-sleeved things without potentially freezing.

4. I'm just more inspired by warm-weather clothes. I always have been. If you look at the aforementioned Pinterest board, sleeveless tops abound. The only winter outfits I can find that I like to pin on there generally have slouchy sweaters and tailored jackets. I have sewn a few jackets, so that wouldn't be an issue, except...

5. I don't necessarily have things to go with those jackets, and my fabric stash also has a VERY heavy bias towards fashion for the warmer months. Remember this jacket? Or this one? I still like them both, and so I'm not going to purge them from my closet, but I've hardly worn either because I just don't really have much to go with them. Topwise, it's not so much of an issue with the BurdaStyle book jacket because it doesn't look right if I leave it open at the front, but as I've complained on here multiple times, I am in dire need of pants that fit well and aren't too short or worn out. Thus the desire for that Thurlow-fest I keep saying that I'm going to do after the dress.

I know I can't do much about it now, obviously, since I still only have about half of an unlined wedding dress, and there are a few summer things I need. Plus there's that stashbusting pledge. Not to mention that February means that I have anywhere between less than 4 to 6 weeks before I'll get called back into my retail job. Two years ago, it was mid-March, but last year, I got "promoted" to head cashier/office assistant out of necessity, and got called back before February was up. (I'm selfishly hoping for more of the former, so I have more dress-sewing time before I'm balancing my part-time teaching plus a part-time job masquerading as almost a full-time job plus finishing up the wedding planning and moving process.) But I figured that if I write this down now while I'm thinking about it, and I can make a decent dent in my stash, maybe I can make this better for me in future winter seasons. I need to:

1. Evaluate my winter wardrobe/dressing habits. This isn't too hard, because I know that once the temperatures drop below 45F, I never, ever want to wear skirts or dresses, because there are no tights in the world that can keep my legs warm. Making those pants will help a lot, so at least that's the one thing I can do this year and still keep to my stashbusting pledge.

2. Improve my knitting. Because so often, I just want to wear sweaters. And Goodwill's been letting me down lately.

3. Buy fabric/yarn based on what's actually in my wardrobe, instead of just buying because I like it. For instance, I know I need tops to go with that blue jacket, so I should look for some knit prints that will coordinate. Or I recently splurged on some slouchy grey boots, since I'd been wanting something like this for months, only to realize that most of the things I have to go with them are more geared towards the fall and spring and I don't have the layers to winterize them yet. (Off-topic--I'd definitely recommend their shoes. It's the second pair that I've bought from this particular company, and even though they're pricey, they're well-made and super-comfortable. And they fit me. This is huge.)

4. Find some alternatives to wool that will keep me warm. For instance, I can wear that 30% alpaca/70% acrylic stuff that I made my Cadence sweater out of with no difficulty. So it might be worth finding some yarn and knitting up accessories in higher percentages of alpaca to figure out what my tolerance is. I also know that this suedecloth top keeps me warm. (This will be especially important, as my peacoat is starting to look a little worn in spots. I think I can squeeze one more winter out of it, and I'm impressed with how well it's held up. But the embroidery is pulling out in multiple spots, and I'm developing a tear by the pocket, and the satin inside is getting all pilly. And, well, this brings me back to the debate that led me to make a coat with a quilted lining that's so thick it practically stands up on its own to begin with....what can I make a coat of that will keep me warm without making me break out in hives? It's at the point where I'm seriously considering attempting to use wool as an underlining for something else, even though my hands will hate me for it during the entire sewing process.)

5. Color, color, color. I need it this time of year.

the edge-finishing experiment (a poll)

I know, two posts in one day, right? But I did some playing around with options on how to finish the back bodice/sleeve edges this afternoon, and I really need some feedback! If you could take just a moment to look this over and vote in the poll below, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I've come to the conclusion that there's really no way to finish this invisibly. Except for adding a second layer of organza to enclose the seams, and that would make the color difference between that and my skin way too obvious, and therefore defeat the purpose of using that nude organza in the first place. But here's what I've tried:

 

Option 1: A hairline seam finish (a very narrow hem-type thing, turned under twice to enclose the raw edges. The first two lines of stitching were done by machine, but I sewed the third by hand.

Pro: This was the easiest/least fiddly option, as I didn't have to deal with narrow strips of anything and the stitching did most of the work for me. And if I do the stitching with a thread other than white, this could be fairly invisible.

Cons: There's still that darker finishing edge where the organza is tripled up. And matching the thread could be problematic.

Option 2: A bias (more or less) binding, overlaid with the lace. Again, interior finishing was done by hand.

Pros: This looked like the cleanest finish at the end around the curved area, and was also the easiest to hand-sew the inside.

Cons: The edge is really peachy looking, because it has the most layers of the organza. It was also kind of stiff, and the binding was pretty tough to work with at that width.

Option 3: Just a strip of the lace.

Pros: The whiter parts where the sunflowers were looked pretty good.

Cons: The netting parts look kind of sloppy, and I'm concerned about the organza edge fraying within that. Also, again, the strips were fiddly and hard to work with. It's also going to be virtually impossible to avoid some kind of thread line, because that row of machine stitching was pretty much necessary to give me something more stable to anchor the netting parts of the lace to.

So what do you think?

Aside from that, I did get to do a bit of actual construction work today. I spent some time constructing the top and bottom of the front sleeve bits, and sewed those on this morning. I did end up using a French seam for this part, so hopefully the color difference won't be terribly obvious when I'm wearing it instead of Donna. I'm a bit more pale than her! (I guess most people won't be looking down at my shoulders anyway, right?) I'm also hoping that it fit ok, because dummy me, I didn't realize until AFTER I trimmed the seam down that I should have sewn it a little away from the stitching line rather than right on it! But I don't think it was so skintight of a fit that it'll be a huge issue, losing that little bit in the shoulders. And anyway, I haven't secured the straps in the front yet, and probably won't until I have the zipper in and know the fit once and for all, so I can always compensate by adding a little length there if needed.

Minus the really wide seam allowances/inside-out seam in the middle/sagginess from no securing at the top, this is essentially what the back looks like. I did try to match the pattern in the back, but I think I'm going to have to take some extra out of the top of the main part, so we'll see how I did. For the record, I didn't even try to match the seams at the shoulders, because I was able to make the placement work out so I had a sunflower cutting through both the top and bottom sleeves, and I kind of needed that for gathering purposes. (Sort of gathering, that is. I ended up having to pin and tack it all down by hand, because the net was just a total lost cause for the basting stitches!)

I'm going to hold off on those edges for now-- on to the waistband!

(Edit: Rats, how did my blog suddenly get all ugly?! Not that I have time to mess with it now...)

puzzle solving

After the great lace disaster of last week, I've managed to get to the point where the front is basically done, and am now applying lace to the back! Which, surprisingly, has turned out to be more complicated than princess seams. Between trying to somewhat match up the motifs that are going over the seamlines and trying to keep it flat and intact over the organza part--I'd like to avoid having to stitch that down so it looks nice on the inside--trying to do this one side of the back has become like trying to solve this complicated puzzle where I'm carefully trimming around bits of sunflowers and overlapping other bits to try and make a fabric that still looks nice but stays flat. All this while trimming and stitching as I go. I tried putting the bodice on Donna and trimming out a piece of lace to put on this piece yesterday, and it didn't work, so I had to resort to basically having the entire piece of lace hanging off of this thing at some point and stitching as I go. I had to make some overlap, but I did have a couple of flowers touching on the front as I tried to work around the princess seams, so it will have to do. There's not many other options for a lace with a lot of netting in between flowers. Most people probably won't be looking that closely, right?

At least those other cut pieces won't entirely go to waste, as I can recycle the sunflowers as skirt embellishments. I'm having my leg model here so they really pop! There's about 6 fully trimmed out so far, and others in various stages of cutting netting away. I've been working a little of this in between things so I can break up the mountain of hand-sewing on occasion.

The other major thing I've gotten done this week was sewing twill tape around the top of the bodice to help shape and stabilize the neckline, and turning and stitching those pieces down. It took some re-reading of Bridal Couture and a shoutout for some clarification on Twitter to figure out exactly how best to go about it, but I think the results turned out well. I grabbed this pic on my phone in-progress...










And here's the result! It did make a rather nicely-shaped neckline, I think--maybe a little pointier than I would have wanted on the right side, but we'll see if I redo it. I did do this part with some negative ease, so it should help the thing curve in and fit me better, too.






In continuing the tradition of showing the guts of the dress, here's what it looks like inside, with the photo seriously filtered to really let it show. For some reason, this side was way more ripply than the other side, and I may end up re-doing this particular section to attempt to get it to lie flatter. (I think this is the pointier side, come to think of it...maybe that explains it.)

One last order of business before I get back to work-- I was recently given the Premio award by the lovely Hana. It's to thank the last 9 people who have commented here, and I'm all in favor of more commenting (and have been making an effort to leave comments more often myself this year!) So I'd like to send a shoutout to Hana (still the most recent commenter!), Donna, Murieann, Helen T, Gwen, soisewedthis, Allison, Christina, and Carolyn.

I apologize to those of you whose blogs I didn't link-- I discovered as I was doing this that apparently Disqus won't link me to the blog for the commenter like the default settings do. I also learned from Hana that apparently the comments don't work on Internet Explorer! Has this been an issue for anyone else? Would it be better if I try to undo the Disqus and just go back to the default commenting?

sewing lace and sewing dares

For those of you who are following this, here's what I've spent the last four days doing. That is, if you count me being about this far before, and then having to rip off all of the lace and start over. On a side note, while I've been trying to avoid that bubble in the chest area around the princess seam, I'm hoping it'll lay better on me. Admittedly, I do fill out the top better than Donna.

I'm working on the first of the two side front pieces currently, and it's somewhat of a beast. I've been having to do some very careful trimming and overlapping and tugging and lots of little tiny hand stitches to keep fragile edges from unraveling. As you can see at the top, I did have to overlap the sunflowers a bit in that one spot, and I'm having to patch together a leafy bit in the middle there. I'm hoping that since I won't have that extreme curve to deal with in the back, it'll come together a little easier there. But I did have an easier time with it the second time around--the first time, one of those sunflowers landed right at the curviest part of the princess seam, and that was being awful to sew around! (Not to mention visually just BAD.) So obviously, this is what I'll be working on again for the next several days at least--I do want to make sure that I get both side fronts done before I do the back. Also, I need to do some seam work before I can lace-ify the back, since I do have that organza/dupioni seam in the middle to deal with. I recently got a few supplies from A Fashionable Stitch, including some narrow twill tape to help give me a good stable edge there (based on the Bridal Couture book instructions. So I might get a machine sewing break, maybe?

In other news, I'm sure many of you have seen the "Sewing Dares" thread over at Crafting a Rainbow. It looked fun, so I sort of dared Gilian to come up with a sewing dare that didn't actually involve a new sewing project. Because, you know, this dress thing. So she, in turn, dared me to start a Twitter account! (And a secondary post topic dare, which I'll do later after I can collect my thoughts.) So you can now also find me on there as @sew_and_so. So far, the bloggers over there have been super-welcoming. And if you're on Twitter, let me know so I can start following you! I'm still getting the hang of it, so bear with me.

Yesterday was not a good day.

So far, I'd been feeling pretty good about my rate of progress on the dress. I got the nude organza sewed onto the back on Tuesday, though I'm holding off on the shoulder seams for now, and spent probably a solid 7-8 hours over the course of the next two days carefully hand-tacking the allover lace to the main fabric on the front of the bodice, cutting around motifs to try and make the seaming as invisible as possible, etc. (I'm so glad I've got my seasonal unemployment going on right now, or there's no way I'd get this done.) I made it all the way to the point of being able to add lace to one of the side front pieces. And then, after a couple of hours fussing with one flower in particular, I had this sinking feeling...

So I held it up to myself, and sure enough: I had a flower centered right in the worst possible place it could be on the princess seam. And this was after spending quite a bit of time pinning, unpinning, and even getting a second opinion to make sure I avoided doing this.

I tried unpicking as little as possible and just shifting that particular flower as much as I could, but it was a no-go. So I spent much of yesterday evening undoing nearly two days' work, and panicking over the thought that I might not be able to avoid doing this again because of the large-scale motifs, and "what if I have to buy new lace I don't have options around here and none of my usual fabric websites have anything that would work right now and I designed the entire dress around this lace!" It was not a good night.

Now that I have it all unpicked, I think I've found an alternate placement that will help me avoid this. I'll have to cut a new piece of lace, but the original one can be salvaged either for a side front piece or just using the motifs on the skirt, as originally planned. It's a good thing I went with dupioni for the main fabric, as I think a less textured silk probably would have been wrecked in the process of undoing the lace and then I would have lost all of the bodice work, too. So now I just have to make up for lost time...

A bodice update, and I need some advice!

When we last met, I basically had an organza corset. Now I'm proud to say that I have what is turning into an actual bodice!

This one was a bit more of a process, since the more opaque nature of the fabric necessitated hand-basting everything together first, and then later removing a lot of that basting. Also, I have two underlining layers, so grading the seams was a must! (On a side note, LOVING this new camera.)

Then I had to stitch down all of those graded seams to the underlining, which was much trickier around the princess seam curves this time. I was having a bit of difficulty getting the seams to press flat, and ended up having to re-do the darts in particular a couple of times-- I finally resorted to slicing those open and pressing the majority of them flat to try and reduce the bulk. The side seam in particular looks much less bubbly now, since I re-pressed it after taking this photo.

The next step, which has taken the last couple of days, was hand-stitching that organza corset layer into the bodice. It was more time-consuming than anything else.

I did have an interesting time trying to figure out what to do with the princess seam part in particular. I finally settled on this whip stitch, which actually does go into the outer layer-- I think I probably should have made the stitch length a bit shorter here, because I noticed that there was a little gapping between stitches after I pressed it. So while you can't actually see the stitches from the outside, I did take it into the seam just to reinforce it a bit.

Here it is on me so far. I know there's a little rippling in the center front, but I think the weight of the skirt will help that. If this were a strapless, I'd have to do a bit of tweaking to the fit at the top, but I think that having those sheer sleeves will help a great deal.


The side seams are sitting in a good place, but I will need to take in the back some, I think. At least at the top of the bodice, it fits well where it meets the waistband. I'm thinking my best bet will be to wait to sew the center back seam of the skirt until I know just how much to take it in, just to make the zipper easier to install. Plus I still have to figure out that whole lapped zipper thing.

So here's where I need some advice--the next step is going to be to add the nude organza for the upper back, and possibly the sleeve, and then get some lace on this thing. What I need to figure out is how best to tackle finishing the edges--the back neckline, the armholes, the sides of the sleeve cap, and the center back. Here's my thoughts so far:

1. 1. The center back seam is going to be open above the dupioni part of the bodice -- I don't want to put a zipper here because it would show too much--although I think I'm going to have to put one button at the top to keep it closed. To further complicate things, since I'm doing a lapped zipper and not a centered one, there will be different widths of seam allowances on these parts of the bodice.
2. I think that for this particular edge, if I'm really careful where the organza meets the dupioni, I might be able to just turn it under with the lace and do a narrow hem sort of thing. Which I'll probably have to do by hand to keep the lace from snagging on the presser foot, but that's just how this dress rolls, I guess.
3. To keep the finishing nice on the inside where the shoulder seams meet, I plan to sew those two seams wrong sides together, though I am leaning towards just using the pinking shears to finish those edges rather than stitch them down for maximum invisibility potential.
4.   Where I'm most stuck is how to deal with getting the lace on these sleeves, and the back neckline/armholes that go into this.
5. For the sleeves, I've resigned myself to having to hand-gather the lace, since the net parts of it are open enough that machine-basting would be ineffective and likely to tear the lace to shreds. But I'm not sure how to do the sides of those pieces, since sewing and turning the raw edges to the inside would really show through. Unless I do something like take a piece of the nude organza and layer that on top of that inside seam allowance and stitch that down before turning, to camoflage the seam allowance as much as possible. The only other option I can think of is binding the edges with the lace. Or more likely, a layer of organza plus the lace, since I can see the raw edges of the sleeve lining organza fraying and poking through the netting otherwise.
6. For the back neck and armholes, probably either a narrow binding or an organza facing would be best. The binding would look best if I do binding on the edges of the front sleeves too, I think, and the facing better if I do turn it into the inside, but the facing wouldn't look as nice on the inside and may show through more.

So, if you were making this dress, what approach would you take? Or can you think of any solutions that I haven't come up with yet? I've got some time before I need to decide, since sculpting the lace around the darts and princess seams will take me at least a few days. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

so, who wants to see some dress guts?

I guess I can cross something else off of the list of "things I never thought I'd actually make but did", because I just spent the last two days making, of all things, an organza corset. Sort of.

I'd figured that the most sensible place to start in actually sewing this thing together would be the underlayer with the boning, which I cut separately from the double-underlined bodice pieces just to simplify actually adding the boning. Thanks to the transparent nature of the organza, it took me maybe an hour to get to this...

(And yes, those seams are right side out for a reason, I wanted to keep the more finished side towards the inside of the dress for this one!)

Of course, then it took me four more hours to get to this! My catch-stitching definitely improved on this one, but I think it actually looks kind of cool on the organza since you can really see all of the stitch. Maybe I should always practice my hand-sewing on see-through fabric! It probably wasn't entirely necessary to go back to each place where I cut the curved seam allowances so they'd lie flat in pressing, but I really wanted to make sure this wouldn't get all frayed and weakened in the process. And, actually, the hand-sewing was surprisingly relaxing! I'm not sure what this change says about me, because I used to HATE hand-sewing when I was making my clothes as a teenager, and would do all I could to avoid it. Maybe I'm maturing?

I'd made the boning channels a little too snug before, but I wanted to keep the muslin channels to make the dark boning less likely to show through. So I just cut strips of the scrap organza and stitched that on top instead to give it a little extra width and slightly more camoflage.

(Also, I waaaaay overestimated how much organza I'd need, and I've probably got a solid two yards of this left! Oh well, at least silk organza is supposed to be infinitely useful for sewing things.)

 

So then I ended up with this vaguely corsetish-looking thing....wait a sec, what's up with that side?

Of course, the first thing I did was check to make sure I didn't do anything dumb like sew the piece on upside down. I didn't. It was a perfect mirror image of the other side, which was pretty straight. I think what this is telling me is that I need to tweak the sizing on Donna...

...because this is what it looks like on me. At least, as close to fitted as I could get it considering that it was over top of my shirt and cami, but this would definitely NOT be internet-safe otherwise!I think that one of my first post-wedding projects should probably be to try and make a cover for Donna so that I can really pad her out to my real measurements. Though I'm not really sure how best to do that-- I've seen tutorials, of course, but trying to get the bust area shaped right for fitting v-necks and such will be....interesting.

Anyway, not bad for two days' work, and it's SO good to actually have visual progress going here! The next step will probably be a bit slower, as I need to sew together the actual bodice, and I think I'm going to have to hand-baste this together for accuracy purposes first. After all, it's not nearly so easy to see the thread-tracing on that as it was on this!