Monday, May 04, 2009

Prom dress progresses

Despite my lack of blogging (and responding to comments), I am here working away! To update the boob thing, I have only got three more radiation treatments to go, and then I am done! They are a walk in the park (or a ride on the bike in my case, as I am biking every day to the hospital for them - 17 kms round trip!) compared to chemo. In fact, I am saying these days, "if I can do chemo, I can do ANYTHING."
blue coat
I worked on the blue coat for a while, before I got the prom dress fabric.
blue coat
It could turn out okay, I guess. But it seems the sleeves are, like, a foot longer than they should be. In any event, I won't deal with this until I finish the dresses now.
prom dress
In the meantime, my niece and I bought some turquoise silk charmeuse for the bubble dress. (In the above photo, it is greener than it really is. The next photo is more accurate.)
prom dress
Beautiful! And as it is real silk, it is surprisingly easy to work with.
prom dress
I also worked on making the bodice muslin for the Vogue dress so it more accurately represented the real bodice. It must have eleventeen layers! The midriff is quilted.
prom dress
And there is draping on the outside. That is going to be a pile of work. In this photo, you can just see a glimpse of the magenta fabric she and her mother bought. So I decided to go with the bubble dress first.
prom dress
Each bodice piece is only cut out once. Because it is asymmetrical, there is no duplication of the pieces.
prom dress
And each silk piece is backed by the same piece in lining.
prom dress
prom dress
I ironed each and every piece first. I laid the lining piece on the ironing board and then laid the silk piece on top of it. Then I pinned them both to the board so that I would be sure they would lie perfectly flat against each other as I went around them and pinned them together. With a lot of pins. Then I sewed them all together.
prom dress
The bodice gets an additional layer of lining. Here I am making sure that I am pinning the lining pieces together correctly, so that they will be sewed right when I attach the lining to the bodice, right sides together.
prom dress
Here I am, making double sure they are sewed correctly, before I get them all sewed together. It's because the lining doesn't have a right and wrong side and because the bodice is asymmetrical that I went to this trouble. And you might note that I cut everything out with pinking shears, to prevent raveling and give a softened edge.
prom dress
Once I sewed the lining to the bodice, I also understitched the lining to keep it from curling out.
prom dress
(Extreme close up!) Then I had to turn the bodice right side out and attach the shoulder seams and hand stitch that opening closed.
prom dress
Here it is, pinned onto my Judy. I added extra width to the back pieces, "just in case". I can trim them easily when I do the fitting and establish where the zipper should go. Next, sew the midriff to the bodice and the skirt to the midriff.

6 comments:

Marty said...

The dress is coming along beautifully. I'm also glad to see you're feeling well enough to bike. My SIL is doing great-we leave for Mexico in 2 1/2 weeks. (hopefully!) The cruise was fantastic medicine for her-if I were you, I'd try to con my people into going on one when the radiation is over.

JuliaR said...

Thanks Marty! My reward for going through this is a trip to California at the end of the summer. SanFran and LA and wine country in between. But I will still think about a cruise. I know my parents love them!

Katie said...

I think your coat is turning out really cute! Love the color of the bubble dress!

xup said...

What a great colour for a prom dress -- much nicer than the usual black.

California wine country is a trip I've always wanted to take too. All the best for the next 3!!

Ann Made Studio said...

The dress is looking beautiful so far. Your attention to detail will definitely show when the dress is done and I love the color. So happy you are feeling better. Biking 17 kms is awesome :)

Chicago Sarah said...

heehee those sleeves...love the coat overall but at first glance something seemed a little off. :) And thanks for the update on other stuff, too.