The fabric I used for my dress is weird. It has a lovely weighty drape, but because of the shiny plastic grain (which is also sheer) with the cross-grain black thread, it does not like to fold or keep a crisp press.
The flounce at the bottom is very curved at the bottom edge, especially in the back. So I knew it was going to fight me for a nice hem. I tried samples of double fold (it was ugly as expected) and even serged edge with single fold. Neither was pretty. A rolled hem on the serger was out of the question.
The pattern instructions said to hem the outer flounce and the lining flounce separately. While that would be pretty in a fabric like chiffon, it would have been double the frustration in this fabric and I didn't want the lining to be a different fabric.
So I decided to bag-out the hem, and then attach the flounce. In some ways, this probably simplified the alterations as I was able to make all the adjustments from the top without having to redo the hem or spend lots of time leveling anything up from the floor.
I used pinking sheers to trim the bottom edge after sewing the two layers of fabric together. Pinking the edge both "clips the curve" and keeps anything from fraying away without the added bulk of serging. Then I understitched the seam allowance to the lining side just beside the seam. This fabric needed to be controlled as much as possible.
I had to steam press really well and use the clapper on the bottom of my point presser to make it lay flat. Once I had forced it into submission, I lined up the vertical seams (sides and center back) and stitched-in-the-ditch to keep the open seam allowances from rolling around between the layers and getting puffy again.
I basted the top edge and trimmed any areas of overhang from the lining side. And then I attached it to the dress as one piece.
(fyi, this is also how I hemmed the sleeves of the shrug.)
#Butterick4731
I spent the day priming things for paint and then I remembered to shoot a quick video. #SewingStudioBuild
I started cutting all the edges while Janet was away yesterday morning. When she got back after lunch, she pulled out a roller and started filling in. I'll put a pic below in the comments. #SewingStudioBuild
We broke for lunch and then came back with a portal ac unit plugged in to an extention cord from the house. Can't wait until they finished hooking up all the electrical and we have the mini split cooling the room for us - it was stupid humid today! #SewingStudioBuild
Nice slow Saturday moving triangles from one pile to another after voting this morning. I have pumpkin pies to make later for tomorrow's church potluck (Octoberfest/Reformation day celebration).
#epp
Bernadette has a "tips for buying fabric online" vid (and a previous vid on fabric weights from last week) up. The excel sheet she's put up looks useful.
IME - you get what you pay for. Every time I've bought a "bargain" fabric online I have regretted it.
I went drooling online yday and now I feel a need to go to BBlacks&Son in person but I will need a bodyguard. -sigh- They have (or, at least they used to have) a lot of fabrics that don't get on their website. Yummy, historic store... anyway, I digress.
I’m trying to figure out if I should do something to jazz up this very grandpa-looking cardigan I’m currently sewing. Maybe this was the wrong fabric to do a tie front/shawl collar with! But since this fabric came from my last year’s birthday mystery bundle, I want to try to see this through. The options I’ve played with so far are some kind of embellishment from my huge vintage button stash (I think the white ones are too ivory-yellow tone to work, but the darker ones could be interesting if I can figure out a better configuration), or trim (picture 3), or some kind of embroidery or scrap denim flowers or something? (no sample). Or I could take the collar off entirely? I need to figure out the edge finishing either way, because I forgot to cut the facing pieces (thanks Big 4) and I’m piecing together scraps to see what I can come up with. I also had to piece the collar and back it with a piece of jersey because I really did not have enough yardage to make anything useful to ...
