Blue dress - assembly begins

Here I have lined up the first pieces I sewed all in one rush. From left to right, they are: bodice front with darts, bodice back with yoke, tabs and belt carriers, belt, front facings, skirt back on machine and collar at the bottom.

The tabs, carriers and belt are all tubes. Since I made them all with the geometric fabric on one side and and the organic print on the other, all the seams had to be partly pressed open to make the turning easier. Then, as I looked at them, I realized that I really should invest in a tube turning device. Oh you can turn them without one, but I think life would be easier with one.

The belt is slightly wider than the other pieces so I left it to the end. When turning the tabs and carrier, I started by flipping one end (or the open end in the case of the tabs) right side out and then gradually and slowly, reaching into the tube and pulling a tiny bit of the inside of the tube out. Since I can only reach inside the tube about an inch, you can see why this takes a while. I used a point turner at the the end, to poke out the corners on the tabs.

On the belt, I had a little more room to manoeuver so after I got it going, I turned the already turned part on itself and grabbed the inside bit and pulled. This way, I could do more than one inch at a time.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize this was out of focus until I blogged but I thought all the tubes looked cute before they were pressed and top stitched.

I didn't put pockets on the grey dress because the rayon was more flimsy and I didn't think it would look very good. I made the pockets for this dress and when I pinned them on, I thought they would work. So far so good, after having sewed them on too.

Now I have sewed and felled some seams and am about to put the sleeves on.