The gala dress muslin

Remembering the 52 people killed in London on this day, 4 years ago.
It rained on and off all day too, which I always find appropriate. And since it was raining, I didn't even go out at all. I got some reading done and then I cut out the muslin. It was easy because I didn't cut a single layer but allowed the fabric to be double thickness, saving myself a lot of time and fussing. And I didn't use pinking shears, as all the seams will be finished in some way.

Then I fused on the interfacing to the yoke and midriff. I may go with sew-in interfacing on the actual dress, depending on the fabric. I often find fusible interfacing eventually bubbles in some fashion. I looked at the over-all colour of the fabric and decided on the ocher colour for the thread and zipper. It was a toss up, really, but I figured the ocher colour was the most muted and least likely to stand out.

I have started to stack up the pieces to be sewed together. You can't really tell from this photo but the instructions call for french seams and I have pinned the pieces together, wrong sides together. That always goes against the grain (whoo, all these sewing metaphors!) as the pieces are usually right sides together. I have to double check each one before I stick it under the needle and get going.

Starting something new (finally)

I have given up (for now, at least) on the blue coat.

I noticed that the front (interfaced) edges curled in. This made me avoid working on it, as I knew I was going to have to do something to fix it.

I decided to hem it, to see if this would help. I finished the raw edge with seam binding and sewed it up by hand. The lining hangs free all around the bottom.

I even sewed on a little bit of seam binding on the raw edge of the facing.

I hemmed up the sleeves and had to cut off several inches. When I hung it on my judy it became clear that the fabric was sagging. In this photo, I am holding up the waist seam and the curved-in fabric on that side corrects itself. I have therefore given up for now and won't continue to struggle with this. In fact, I wasn't so much struggling as avoiding. It seems a shame to put so much time into something and then pitch it. But it is a good lesson for me, not to buy mysterious cheap fabric. The clothes I have made recently that I wear a lot and love to wear are the ones I made with quality fabric or at least known quantities, like 100% cotton that I washed and dried and it survived.

So! In the meantime, I have become a volunteer member of the board of Breast Cancer Action and they have several fund raising events, one of which is a Gala in November. So I went looking for patterns!

After seeing the same dress over and over in other books, I got this pattern from Vogue (V1086). It is a designer (Tracy Reese) pattern but it seems quite straightforward. It has the things they keep mentioning on "What Not To Wear", such as a high midriff and a skirt that floats away from the body. Of course, I was seduced by how lovely this model looks and I will never be that thin, but it might still work well on me.
Her dress appears to be made of batiste and as such, it is not as "fancy" as a gala dress. But I wanted to go short, not long, and I had had enough of the red carpet type dress after my last creation! It may be, after I make the muslin, that I will think the pattern itself is not fancy enough but time will tell.

Now in spite of what I just wrote about mystery fabric, I got some $3/yard stuff in pure polyester but that is to make the muslin for this pattern. It is even possible that I might get a wear or two out of it, if it turns out to fit me and doesn't look too horrible. But the main goal is to fit the pattern properly.


In spite of the polyester pansies, this fabric actually doesn't feel too bad and the weight is probably good for whatever, better, fabric I end up buying. Which will probably be at
Darrell's.

I like the fact that it looks like there is a fair bit of detail in the dress, even though it should not be that difficult to sew. The bodice is gathered which is nice for ease and so is the skirt. The most fitted part will be the midriff and the shoulders, which are yokes. It has a side, invisible zipper so it does not pull over the head.

There's only one version of the dress, so I will be using all the pattern pieces, and there aren't that many of them.

The only interfacing is in the yoke, on the pieces that you have to cut four of, and the midriff, which is double thickness.

I have pinned the midriff to the judy and I think I will cut on the safe side, at size 14, and then take in where necessary. I have to say, it is a relief to have decided to move on to something else, even if it does violate my "Rule" about having no UFOs.

Working on the blue coat (still)

Why does my life seem so busy and I am not even "gainfully employed outside the home"?

I have been working back on the blue coat since I finished the dresses but I still have not managed to finish it yet.

I finished putting the lining pieces together and then attached the lining to the coat.

Then I machine sewed seam tape to the hem and hand sewed the hem up. I am doing it this way because the lining hem is not going to be attached to the coat hem - it will float separately because of the pleat in the middle of the back. I have to press the heck out of it now and finish the lining hem. Next will be some top stitching and then the buttons and I'll be done.

Matching purses

At last! I can allow myself to think about something ELSE.
I spent all day Sunday (off and on) sewing up the two matching purses. So cute!

It is almost like making baby clothes, because they are so small. But there is still a fair bit of construction. I used Butterick 6371, the middle silver purse on the right.

It calls for buckram on the bottom oval piece but I used two layers of the hair canvas (because I had it) on both the lining and the purse oval pieces. So there are six layers on the bottom, which is still one less than in the bodice of that dress!

I cleverly discovered that my pressing ham is the perfect size and shap for pressing out the side seams on the purse.

The bottom looks complicated with all the pleats and easing the sides onto the oval, but it is surprisingly easy.

There is a layer of quilt batting between the outside and the lining but it is just held in around the edges or the seams - there is no actual quilting going on.

Once you have the inside and outside done and the handles attached to the outside, you put the lining inside and sew it around the top edge.

The oval piece on the lining is supposed to be made out of lining fabric but I used the outside fabric for a fun, finishing touch.

And there they are!

Prom dress finished!

The day before D-Day! I spent 2 and a half hours last night, hand sewing a hand rolled hem. This morning, I put on the finishing touches and now I just have to make the two matching purses (one for the turquoise dress too).

It started with having to rip out some of the back of the dress. The bodice fit great around the shoulder blades, where I had added the quilted "design feature" but it bagged out at the waist so I had to take it in. So I had to rip out the zipper too. I had not put it in properly with the proper zipper foot so I had to rip it out anyway, but it was sewn and basted in so there was much ripping.

Once I had ripped it all out, I decided to reinforce the skirt back with two pieces of lining fabric. I had not been able to cut the back exactly on the straight of grain and it bagged a little, so by reinforcing the edge with lining fabric, I was able to get a clean look on the back.

I also trimmed the quilted "design feature" so it would come in at the waist. Here is the zipper, ready to be installed.

This is how that zipper foot pushes out the rolled zipper teeth as you sew. It is still fussy and you have to be slow and careful but it works.

Once I had the zipper installed, I had to gently press the quilted part of the back to get the fat edges to meet properly. It was especially fat around the bottom of the bodice because I was into all those layers of hair canvas. I don't know how the zipper would have worked if all I'd had to work with was that heavily constructed part, so I am glad I put in the "design feature".

Then it was time to hem. I had to take it up about 2 and 1/2 inches so I set a rubber band on my machine at 2 and 3/8 inches.

Then I sewed all around the hem so the line of stitching was at 2 and 3/8 inches.

I trimmed off 2 and a quarter inches of fabric, leaving an eighth of an inch outside the line of stitching.

About an inch at a time, I rolled the fabric over at the stitching line and then rolled it again to conceal the raw edge.

Alternating tiny stitches in the fabric and small stitches in the hem, it took me as I said, about 2 and a half hours to sew around the bottom of the dress.

Here's what it looks like on the outside.

I sewed on the hooks and eyes for the halter top part.

And I sewed on the hangers on the inside.

I'll try to get pictures of her wearing it at the prom! And now for purses...

Prom dress continues, stuck at the zipper

Well, I thought I could fake the invisible zipper as I have done once before, without the proper invisible zipper foot, but I was wrong. sigh. Let's start where we left off last time.

I added the vertically quilted pieces to the back, where I needed a little extra width. They were quite a bit wider than I needed but I wanted to give myself wiggle room. I also noticed that putting the zipper in might be easier with the simply quilted piece, rather than trying to sew the zipper to all those layers of hair canvas interfacing, so I think that part turned out for the best.

I trimmed those pieces up a bit more and here, I am illustrating what it will look like once the zipper is in. I have been hoping this "fix" will look like a "design feature" and I think it will!

This is just one panel of how odd the construction of the skirt seemed, before I actually followed the instructions and sewed all four of the skirt pieces together.

Here is the dress, just hanging around the neck of my judy, which is why the skirt looks oddly wide (because it's not actually ON the judy). But it does look exactly like the pattern instructions.

Once the skirt is sewn onto the bodice, you have to press the seam allowance UP, into the bodice, so that it can get concealed by the lining. This is difficult because of the layers of interfacing that have to be folded up. So I decided to sew up the seam allowance by hand (instead of just pressing it up), taking some internal stitches here and there but also making pick stitches right through to the quilting on the outside. This is turning into a true couture garment, with all this hand sewing.

The instructions also called for understitching the top edge of the bodice as much as possible by machine, which I did. But it still tended to roll out so I pick stitched the entire thing around the inside, including the two "drape" pieces (the things that go around the neck to make the halter).

These pick stitches are all on the inside and never show on the outside.

So then it came time to put in the invisible zipper. I basted it all in by hand first (of course!). Then I tried cheating with a non-invisible zipper foot and couldn't get the zipper teeth to roll out far enough to give it the proper "invisible" effect. So now I have to call my sister (my niece's mother) and see if she has this foot attachment on her machine. If so, I can go over and first do a fitting and then sew it up. If not, I will have to go find one. But I'm almost done!

Prom dress continues

I was glad I made that draping piece "#9" larger - it would have been a disaster if I'd cut it according to the pattern piece.

Here it is, with the corresponding piece turned over, showing the interfacing. On both pieces, I have pinned the drape and it would have shrunk the underlying "10" piece by a considerable amount, if I'd had to "stretch" the drape to fit, as the instructions said. I have been trying to follow the instructions to the letter but I just knew something was wrong with this piece. And it did NOT stretch one bit.

Here is the draping pinned to the piece that goes up and around the neck. They actually call this whole piece "the drape" (to distinguish it from upper bodice and side bodice and stuff.) You can see that the underlying, interfaced piece has curved up a little, because the draping overlay is a little bit smaller. Here, those instructions work but not on the back!

Backing up a little, here are all the bodice pieces with their corresponding interfacing pieces stitched to them.

These pieces are obvious! Looks like something Madonna would have worn. The interfacing makes it very structured.

This is the drape that goes on top of the piece.

This is how I gathered all the draping pieces - by hand.

Here's the draping piece pinned on the ungathered edge.

And here it is, all gathered up and basted on.

Back to the midriff - I finished the quilting to the interfacing and then the instructions called for a double layer of interfacing to be hand sewn into the midriff.

The instructions called for a catch stitch so that's what I used to sew in the extra midriff interfacing.

The bodice also called for two layers of interfacing to be sewn in there too. This is the bodice and the midriff, sewn together.

The bodice and midriff, from the right side. I had not, at this stage, sewn the interior or lining on the piece. When I did and after I fitted it on my niece, I had a major problem - it did not meet at the back! I had to devise a way of adding an inch or so of fabric to the back where the zipper will go, without making it look odd.

I decided to quilt a piece of fabric to some lining so it would look like the midriff. We're only talking an extra inch here but I made a good 8 inches (in width) of quilted fabric so I would have room to manoeuver.


Next, I have to attach the extra strip of quilted fabric to the back and then attach the skirts. Whew.