It took me a while to get started on this even though I know there's a ton of work involved in making the dress and I do have a deadline. Lately I've noticed that when I have a time frame to complete something that I drag my feet getting started. *sigh* You would think that I would have been working on this first thing Saturday morning...yeah, right. Let's try it was closer to midnight when I finally got into working on this dress.
Let's start with the pieces...
I decided to underline the wool tweed with silk organza since the wool tweed is a loosely woven fabric. So there are four layers to this dress...
* wool tweed base fabric
* silk organza underlining
* silk charmeuse lining
* guipure lace
After I cut everything but the lining out, I machine basted the silk organza to the dress pieces. I went back and forth over whether I should hand baste the silk organza to the wool tweed but finally realized that I would never be finished with the dress in time if I hand basted the two pieces together. Especially since I'm going to serge finish the pieces because the tweed is starting to ravel like the dickens. I've decided that I'm going for well constructed not couture sewn.
Then I sewed the dress together. The challenging part now is getting the lace stitched to the front of the dress so that it's flat...which involves a lot of hand stitching...and a lot of concern. Gawd, why do I do this to myself? So I'm watching television and hand stitching and praying. Well at least Jesus will be happy that I'm staying in constant contact while I attempt to make this dress work...
A few photos of the dress in progress...
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...as always more later!
Let's start with the pieces...
I decided to underline the wool tweed with silk organza since the wool tweed is a loosely woven fabric. So there are four layers to this dress...
* wool tweed base fabric
* silk organza underlining
* silk charmeuse lining
* guipure lace
After I cut everything but the lining out, I machine basted the silk organza to the dress pieces. I went back and forth over whether I should hand baste the silk organza to the wool tweed but finally realized that I would never be finished with the dress in time if I hand basted the two pieces together. Especially since I'm going to serge finish the pieces because the tweed is starting to ravel like the dickens. I've decided that I'm going for well constructed not couture sewn.
Then I sewed the dress together. The challenging part now is getting the lace stitched to the front of the dress so that it's flat...which involves a lot of hand stitching...and a lot of concern. Gawd, why do I do this to myself? So I'm watching television and hand stitching and praying. Well at least Jesus will be happy that I'm staying in constant contact while I attempt to make this dress work...
A few photos of the dress in progress...
Back piece with silk organza underlining basted together
Back piece with seaming and invisible zipper installed
Tweed dress base on Lulu
Pinning the lace to the dress
Dress on the hanger
Basting the lace onto the front of the dress
...as always more later!