Promised Pictures

More pictures on Flickr.
Complete review at Pattern Review.

Thank you for all the sweet, encouraging comments you've left as I've documented my progress on this dress. I feel so blessed!
Ruth

Fun Vintage Pattern and Fabric Giveaway!

The Whipstitch blog is hosting a great vintage pattern giveaway and fabric to make your choice of whichever pattern you pick!

Go HERE to enter. This is one of the patterns I loved... View 2, in the blue would be so cute on me, don't you think?

Hurry, giveaway ends tomorrow at 10pm

Blessings,
Jessica

The dress is complete!

The Summer Sundress is finished! I'll show a few details here, and tomorrow or the next day I will post pictures of Emily wearing the dress.

The placket turned out fine, thanks to Summerset's tutorial and Goosegirl's suggestion to cut the placket on the bias and use Fraycheck at the point.

~the placket from the inside~

Well, I just could not decide whether to add a green band to the bottom of the dress or not. I liked it both ways. So instead, I added a 1" band of green, inserted 2 inches up from the hem. I love the way this turned out.

~green band inserted into the skirt~

The dress is fully lined with white batiste. The dotted Swiss fashion fabric is somewhat sheer, and with the lining there will be no need for Emily to wear a slip. The dress has its own built-in (rather, sewn-in) petticoat.

~the inside of the dress~

This dress is quite full---just think of the twirling that Emily will be able to do in this dress! I didn't use the skirt pattern piece since it is just a rectangle. Instead I just cut a rectangle using the full width of the fabric, assuming it was 45" wide. I was wrong--the fabric was approx. 58-60" wide because the skirt measures at a whopping 114" wide! A lot of twirling potential!

~full skirt~

The dress looks lovely on Emily, and I can't wait to take pictures tomorrow.

Okay, I'm off to practice my oboe---band concert on Thursday in Edmond. If you're in the area, it's going to be a fun concert of patriotic music and free watermelon and icecream afterwards.

Ruth

Progress--Slow but Steady

In the 30 minutes I had for sewing today, I put the bodice together--complete except for buttonholes and buttons. I couldn't wait to try it on Emily, and I'm happy to report that the fit will be perfect!




The instructions called for sewing the sash ties directly on top of the side seams after the dress is completely finished. Instead, I chose to sew the sash ends into the side seam allowance. This gives a smoother look and avoids turning the raw edges under and topstitching the ties down. Also, instead of gathering, I made a little pleat in each tie before sewing it into the seam allowance.


After sewing the lining together with the fashion fabric and turning it right sides out, I pressed the seam allowance with the fashion fabric slightly rolled to the inside. I also edge stitched the lining to the seam allowance to ensure that the lining will not peek out on the right side.




I love the back of the dress, especially the big bow. Now I need to decide on buttons, 3 down the back and 2 for the straps.


This week I hope to finish the dress. The skirt should go together quickly once I get past the placket. From past experience, my plackets don't come out that great. Any suggestions for a good placket method? I'm open to any tips you can give me!

Ruth

Ready to Assemble the Bodice

The bodice is ready to assemble, but not today---too many other things I need to do first: eat lunch, give Em a bath, practice my oboe, and attend a wedding. :)

In the short time I had for sewing today, I managed to get the bodice parts of the Vintage Sundress prepped and ready to assemble. This included sewing 8 darts, sewing and turning 2 straps, and sewing and turning 2 sash ties.





My favorite tool for turning tubes, both wide or narrow, is the Fasturn. The Fasturn works great for those teeny tiny spaghetti straps as well as for wide tubes.



The following pictures show how I usually sew darts. I'm not expert by any means, but this method works for me.

First of all, I mark my darts by clipping the dart "legs" and marking the top of the dart with a pin. I think you can see the leg clips in the picture. I drew lines to show where I will be stitching---hopefully my sewing is straighter than the drawn lines.



I then fold the fabric in half along the dart, matching the dart legs together. Using a sticky note, index card, or piece of paper (whatever I find handy on my sewing table), I place it along the stitching line and use it as a straight edge guideline as I sew. The trick is to sew along the straight edge, not through it. As I approach the top of the point, marked by the pin, I shorten my stitch length to next-to-nothing--1.0 or 1.5 on my machine-- and I sew off the fabric for a few stitches. This "knots" the thread, eliminating the need to back-stitch at the dart point, and thus eliminating unnecessary bulk. I've never had a dart come undone doing it this way.



The sewn dart on the inside:



The sewn dart from the outside, after pressing. No pucker!



This dress has a total of 8 darts: 4 on the outside and 4 on the lining. I am using batiste for the lining of the dress.



My excitement about finishing this dress is growing. I love to sew for long periods of time, and this sewing in short periods of time is about doing me in. I can't wait to put this bodice together--sigh--I really need to get going with the other things that must be done first.

Ruth : )

Little Green Jacket

I didn't think it was going to happen today, but I actually found time to sew! The little green jacket is just about finished.

My dilemma of how to finish the armhole edges has been resolved. I really liked Summerset's idea of binding the armhole edges, but I did not have enough green fabric for both armhole binding and the band at the bottom of the dress. (BTW, my decision of whether or not to add the green band still has not been determined). So, I searched in a few of my sewing reference books and followed the method for a lined vest as found in Connie Amaden-Crawford's book, A Guide to Fashion Sewing.

This picture shows the jacket front and lining pieces pinned together with the collar sandwiched between. The white lines show where I stitched. The corners were left unsewn until I sewed the side seams.



What complicated this procedure is that there are no true armholes in this pattern. Instead the armholes are part of the side seams. I followed the lined vest instructions as much as possible, but when it came to the armholes, I had to improvise a bit. The completed arm openings ended up nice and smooth, and I am very happy with the finishing.

Here you can see how the armhole openings are in line with the side seams.



The little green jacket looks very sweet on Emily. Now I'm looking forward to starting the matching dress as time permits.

Ruth

Vintage Pattern -- Dress and Jacket

I'm finally getting around to using the fabric that I wrote about in a previous post. Yes, and I've decided on the pattern: Simplicity 4689. This vintage girls dress pattern is copyrighted 1954. It's been a long time--20 years, maybe--since I've sewn anything from a pattern this old, and already I can tell that I'll need to make a few changes.



Please help me decide: Should I add a band of green to the bottom of the dress? Or leave it off? I drew some sketches, but I still can't make up my mind.




Today I was hoping to sew, but my oboe was calling my name. After rehearsal at church yesterday afternoon I realized how much more I need to be practicing. So...today I practiced my oboe but didn't get any sewing done.


I did managed to get the green bolero jacket cut out and interfaced. I used interfacing from Sew Exciting (I love this stuff!), but I think I needed a lighter weight for this almost-sheer fabric. I can see the interfacing showing through to the right side of the fabric. At this point there's not much I can do to change anything; I don't have enough fabric to re-cut the jacket, and I'm hesitant to try peeling off the interfacing and replacing it with something else. So it will remain as it. Somebody reassure me that it'll be okay.

I made a mistake with the interfacing on the jacket front---
I fused the interfacing to the side seams instead of the front. Oops!

In the picture below, the fabric on the left is interfaced, and the fabric on the right is not. You can see the web of the interfacing on the left-hand fabric showing through.



One change that I've not yet thought my way through is how to eliminate the handsewing on the jacket. You see, the instructions say to turn the lined jacket through the armholes and then sew the armhole openings closed by hand. Ick. My slipstitching isn't the best and I'd like to avoid it. I'm going to look at a few of my reference books and find another way to do this...perhaps "bagging" the jacket or something else. Any ideas? What complicates this is that the armholes are not true armholes but just the top part of the side seam left open. If you understand what I'm saying, and you know of a good method for this, please let me know. :)



Okay, I'll be posting as I progress along on this dress.
Thanks for reading.
Ruth