Last Wednesday, I found myself in the middle of Frocktails panic. As usual. There was an event on Saturday night and I'd been planning to make a dress for it for, oh, six months.
Life happened. As it inevitably does, and the actual process of doing came down to the last couple of weeks.
Anyway, I pulled out the pattern template, copied the pattern onto some pattern-piecing, and read through the pattern instructions. Turns out working with silk and chiffon and silky fabrics is a little tricksy. I mean, I knew that, but I never really gave it a lot of thought before. This time, I didn't want to screw it up, so I decided to make a toile to practice my techniques, and then went looking for YouTube advice.
The toile was a very good idea, and it gave me practice with fabric techniques - french seams, zippers, bias-binding clothing edges, and rolled hems - so that was really useful and I'm glad I did. Additionally, I now have another nice top to wear in summer. Must remember to wear it.
Checking out the YouTube advice was also a very good idea - it's been invaluable in dealing with the loose-weave, sheer fabric that I chose for the toile.
The major changes that needed making were: the reduction of the width of the dress (it needed more fitting around my bust), and using home-made bias-binding for the neckline and armholes.
I also chose to sew a rolled hem, and while it's not the neatest thing, after wearing the dress on Saturday night to the Frocktails event, I received some excellent advice about how to do rolled hems more neatly (basically: zigzag stitch them, rather than straight stitch.
I think I will try to make the full dress out of the nice material with the facing from the pattern. However, I will still need to make the pattern somewhat slimmer. (And now I'm trying to remember if I removed one inch or two from the pattern...)
Otherwise, I'm in the middle of a cousin quilt (cousin M4 - 4th cousin, name starts with M, I can never remember how I number the cousins tbh) and it got interrupted in the midst of the plan for Frocktails, so everything's a little scatterd all around the place right now. I even had calculations on a shet of paper and now that I've set them aside, I'm not entirely sure I understand what the calculations actually mean...
Otherwise, it's all about getting the study/sewing room sorted out right now, including putting things away in filing cabinets and drawers, giving or throwing away things that aren't needed, and generally trying to be more organised before I go away for six weeks.
Mind you, that hasn't stopped me from trying to sew on some bindings, ready to get quilts out...
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