Dress Diary 1- Part 6: She's A Tall Gal
Feb. 26th, 2005 01:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzThursday my sewing-buddy Steelweaver came over for a day of sewing, and when she knocked on the door I had already sewn on half of the beads on the other shawl. I'm getting much faster at sewing by hand and tying knots around those oh so precious glass beads. I finally finished, and as she set to work I had the abnoxious task of making the cowl stick to the shawls. In the original pattern the cowl has a flap that folds back up, to finish any loose ends. Seeing that I worked double-sided, I had to find out another way of doing this. With only one layer of fabric the pleats in cowl and shawl would be so thick I'd doubts my sewing machine would swallow it at all. Never mind having another two layers as lining to go with it, also pleated. So, after basting these together to see if it could work, and when seeing it wouldn't, I had to think of another way. I'd have to first stitch the four layers of satin together, and then later see if I could add some pleats or no. Getting that first step done was hard enough. As I have already mentioned numerous times, the satin will not stay put when pinned. So when I had the four layers of satin in place on the one end (remember: the shawl has two), and I sewed these, I had to undo about a third and retry. The other end went better, having learned from my mistakes.
Having put the cowl and shawls together, the pleating was up. Cowl and shawl were about three times as wide as the shoulder strap of the dress, and the pleating would ensure both cowl and shawl would drape nicely. Pleating four layers of slippery satin is something I can't recommend. I managed. The first went better than the second side, but all in all they're of thesame shape and size. I pleated them so they could be worn both sides out still (a prerequisite for the dress). To keep it into place on the shoulder, it'll require some basting and or loose stitching through the shoulder seam, but that is of a later concern.
Next up would be the hem. I was very glad I was done with the cowl, though. I cleared our small coffeetable and put Esmerelda the mannequin (with dress) on top of it. The rest of the afternoon was spent on trying to get the inside and outside dress together, so they wouldn't bubble or stand out. I had basted the side seams of day and night together, making sure the inside would not shift from the outside, and the other way around. Then I carefully flipped over the black lock-stitch inside, and pin. I could, by that semi-hem, see how far the gold would come, and flip that inwards too, before putting a pin in there. I did not finish pinning all of the hem before I had to leave for D&D, but I had decided to 'donate' the next day to the dress too. All that needed doing were the hem and center back, after all.
I want to point out that these 'little' things on the dress filled my entire day, and that I had to be really careful, checking and double-checking before it would be sewed. It takes a lot more time then you'd think.
Friday I continued with the hem, and after pinning side-back, side-front, mid-front, the other side-front and side-back, I found I had to do at least a bit of the center back seam, before I could sew the hem. After that, I basted the entire hem by hand. This would ensure easy sewing, no satin slipping away where you don't want it to go. I put the lock-foot on my sewing machine. That has a guard for the fabric, so you can't sew too far from the side of the fabric. The needle can be repositioned to be right next to the side of the fabric, and sewing was easy enough. Then, I quickly did the center back seam (the only vertical seam I just pinned, in stead of basting it as well). I tried on the dress to see how far the dress would have to open, and stopped at that point. All that is left to do, is figure out how to do the closing of the dress.
Remember to check out this dress diary with pics at my website: Janestarz.com
Having put the cowl and shawls together, the pleating was up. Cowl and shawl were about three times as wide as the shoulder strap of the dress, and the pleating would ensure both cowl and shawl would drape nicely. Pleating four layers of slippery satin is something I can't recommend. I managed. The first went better than the second side, but all in all they're of thesame shape and size. I pleated them so they could be worn both sides out still (a prerequisite for the dress). To keep it into place on the shoulder, it'll require some basting and or loose stitching through the shoulder seam, but that is of a later concern.
Next up would be the hem. I was very glad I was done with the cowl, though. I cleared our small coffeetable and put Esmerelda the mannequin (with dress) on top of it. The rest of the afternoon was spent on trying to get the inside and outside dress together, so they wouldn't bubble or stand out. I had basted the side seams of day and night together, making sure the inside would not shift from the outside, and the other way around. Then I carefully flipped over the black lock-stitch inside, and pin. I could, by that semi-hem, see how far the gold would come, and flip that inwards too, before putting a pin in there. I did not finish pinning all of the hem before I had to leave for D&D, but I had decided to 'donate' the next day to the dress too. All that needed doing were the hem and center back, after all.
I want to point out that these 'little' things on the dress filled my entire day, and that I had to be really careful, checking and double-checking before it would be sewed. It takes a lot more time then you'd think.
Friday I continued with the hem, and after pinning side-back, side-front, mid-front, the other side-front and side-back, I found I had to do at least a bit of the center back seam, before I could sew the hem. After that, I basted the entire hem by hand. This would ensure easy sewing, no satin slipping away where you don't want it to go. I put the lock-foot on my sewing machine. That has a guard for the fabric, so you can't sew too far from the side of the fabric. The needle can be repositioned to be right next to the side of the fabric, and sewing was easy enough. Then, I quickly did the center back seam (the only vertical seam I just pinned, in stead of basting it as well). I tried on the dress to see how far the dress would have to open, and stopped at that point. All that is left to do, is figure out how to do the closing of the dress.
Remember to check out this dress diary with pics at my website: Janestarz.com
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Slippery
Date: 2005-02-26 02:59 pm (UTC)I had a girlfriend who was a costumer and corseter and leatherworker. She pinned satin with two needles, crossed them and inserted them loosely into the fabric, sewed close to it, unpinned. It didn't take her so much longer to double pin and double unpin, and saved a bit of slippage according to her, so it was worth it.