Red linen dress and jacket

Into the home stretch! I have to wear it in two days, so I'd better be getting finished. On the Friday, some of us going to the charity event went to choose jewelry for our outfits. A jewelry designer (Karen McClintock) is showcasing her work at the charity event and some of us at BCA get to wear pieces as models. Our Executive Director found the perfect piece of clear gold Swarovski crystals necklace with matching earrings and bracelet for my outfit. I can wear the bracelet to good effect because the sleeves on the jacket are three-quarter length. I'll try to get photos on Thursday, of the whole ensemble.

Here's the dress, with the lining and the facing, ready to sew together. I wanted the lining to end up with the wrong side of it touching the wrong side of the dress and the black facings on the inside of the dress where they belong. I was successful!

Here, I've sewn them all together and I'm reaching under the facing to pull the individual dress back pieces out through the facings. Looks like a weird glove, but it's not. Also, I didn't realize how hairy my arms are! I should take a loofa to them.

Once I had turned the dress right-side-out, I put it on the dummy to ascertain how I should fasten the side seams together. It all worked out as I had imagined.

I pinned the dress (linen) side seams together and continued pinning down the sides of the lining, catching the black facings in with the lining. Then I sewed all down the sides of the dress and the lining in one go.

Rather than top stitching around the facings, I under-stitched them so they would lie flat and not creep out from under the dress. There's more under-stitching in a minute.

Once I got all the pieces of the dress sorted out, I put the zipper down the back, leaving the facings and lining free. Once the zipper was in, I sewed the bottom of the back centre seam on the lining and hand sewed the edges of the lining to the zipper tape, enclosing the raw inside of the dress in the lining. I've also hand sewed the hem but still have to tack the lining to the dress at the one side seam split I left for freer walking.

I decided I would go ahead and make unlined pockets for the jacket. I had a couple of small pieces left over - scraps really - and just enough for pockets.

Ironing those rounded corners can get very tricky without burning your fingers so I hold down the fabric with pins, do an initial press and then take the pins out and press the pockets and pound them with a clapper.

After the pockets were sewn onto the jacket, I sewed on the black facings. The jacket is considered to be unlined, but it does have a little bit of lining at the front and a bit around the back of the neck.

Here, I am under-stitching the jacket facing. I am using black thread top and bottom so it doesn't show any red on the black linen facing. I switched to red thread for the part around the back of the neck. The spot shown here is where those seams meet at the shoulder.

Now, I have basted the lining and facing bits to the jacket at the armholes, in preparation for inserting the sleeves. I have also flat felled all the seams that will show on the inside of the jacket, including the sleeves, even though I wouldn't roll the sleeves up or anything. I just like to know that when I take off the jacket, if someone sees the inside, it will be as nicely finished as the outside. The hard part left is finishing the armscye seams with the flat fell. I've done it before - that's why I know it's difficult.

The skirt continued

I am still plugging away at the skirt and jacket, working on the skirt to get it finished first. I am liking this fabric more and more and it is a really nice brown without being dull. I have a feeling I will get a lot of wear out of these pieces.

Here are the two halves of the skirt - the inside and the outside. The inside has the interfaced yoke and lining and the outside has the zipper. Now I have to sew them together around the top edge of the skirt (yoke).

This is what it looks like sewn together around the top, with the wrong sides outwards. Once the skirt is turned and the wrong sides lie against each other, it will be finished inside and out.

As usual, I press open the seam around the top, even though it will get pressed back together again. But this way, you get a sharp edge, with no fabric sinking into the seam.

Next, I understitch the seam allowances to the interfaced yoke facing. This will make the seam lie flat but you won't see the stitching on the outside or right side of the yoke.

Finally, here is the top of the skirt. I haven't pressed it yet. You can see the yoke on the top and underneath it, peeking out the top, is a view of the inside of the yoke, showing the understitching.

Working on the patterned skirt

I decided to get the other skirt finished before I continued on the blue jacket, partly because I wanted to be able to wear a new skirt and partly because someone made a comment on an old Flickr photo about under-stitching and I thought I could show a little of that this time.

Here is the skirt facing, sewed on, trimmed and ironed with the seam allowance pressed toward the facing.

Here I am, sewing the trimmed seam allowance to the facing by under-stitching. There's a bit of confusion in this photo because I folded back the first part that I sewed, so you could see the underside and the tops side all in one photo. Unfortunately, it looks like I've sewed the two parts together because I put them so close together in the photo.

However, here is an extreme close-up of the finished facing, inside and out, with the under-stitching showing.

After that, I needed to fold under the ends of the facing and then fold the whole facing to the inside of the skirt and tack it down, near the zipper and at each of the other three seams. A good press and...

... the skirt is done! I hung it on top of the blue skirt I finished yesterday and now it's back to the jacket.