Finished dress

Last weekend we had a trip to my friend Alicia in Kenilworth, primarily to do a fitting of “The Dress” to be able to continue working on it.

It was first thought about last July, when the sari fabric was draped around Alicia Dress-making and continued progress in More dress-making and more … then in Dress progress, and it has been on my tailor’s dummy since then.

It was tried on and, much to my relief, it fitted. Alicia was thrilled to bits with it, she loves the colour and fit, and said it felt like a party dress. As you can see from the dummy, it appears rather revealing, and it needed a “dickie” for modesty, so a wodge of fabric was put down the front as a temporary measure. It’s pulling slightly at the front partly because the lining isn’t joined at the centre front and the centre back, to make it easier to do round the neckline and armholes when I was attaching the lining (hand dyed with Procion dye). This was not the first try on, I’d already levelled the hem, cut it and overlocked it.

It fits well at the back too, and I’m so pleased with the concealed zip.

The decorative band from the fabric was pinned on, but there were a few doubts about it.

After sleeping on it, I wondered whether we could lose the gold part in the band.

The lining was pinned up to see how it looked, but without the trim it lost the whole point of the fabric. It just looked fairly ordinary. The dickie was supposed to be press-studded in place, but the fabric was so fine that I thought they would show. I couldn’t get my head round how to attach it between the dress and the lining, and stay neat at the bottom (it looks a bit bulky at the bottom as the lining is still open inside).

It was decided 3:1 to go with the band without the gold. The band was machine-stitched together up to the bottom of the V-neck line, and the gold was ironed flat inside for the sides of the V neck. The dickie was made a bit bigger than the pattern. It has two layers with a fold at the top, overlocked round the rest of it and stitched by hand to the outside of the dress, where it was then trapped between the dress and the decorative band, again by hand.

The centre front and back seams of the lining were machine-stitched, and the lining hand-stitched to the zip making sure it was far enough away not to get caught in the zip, which is so annoying on many bought lined garments.

The lining hem was cut level with the dress, folded over twice and machine-stitched. Then the hem was hand-stitched, a race against the clock before we needed to leave…… I didn’t go over by much!

But there wasn’t time to iron the dress before the final try on. Alicia was so excited, she was dancing round the room, it’s all ready for a party or two once it’s had a quick press.

It wasn’t the easiest of fabrics to work on, nor was it easy to get the overlocker tension right for such fine fabric, but I’ve learnt a lot. Alicia wants me to make up the sari fabric that was given to me at the same time, so that we can wear them together to go somewhere special.

Dress progress

I’ve made progress on several projects this week. Nothing finished, yet, but optimistically hoping to finish my shard for Linconshire Textiles tonight!

The sari fabric dress has moved on considerably. It was just as well I’d waited for Alicia to come for a fitting of the lining before continuing with it, because the fit was just as on the mannequin, but one deep breath and the seams would have burst. It certainly went on Alicia more easily, but the lack of flexibility of the mannequin had made it tricky to get it on and off. She was delighted with it, the flow of the style and the Procion dyed colour of the lining.

I let the seams out, except on the centre front and centre back. The large stitches made them easy to unpick once I’d re-stitched with a smaller seam allowance of 3/8″ rather than the standard 5/8″ in dress-making, so gaining three inches overall and allowing for movement, and a good dinner.

Then for the scary bit, to cut out the sari fabric. Definitely measure twice and cut once, with lots of checking, no going back once I’d started cutting. It looks as if there is a lot of wastage, but the skirt is very full on the centre panels front and back, and I opted to have the pieces all going in the same direction, in spite of there not being an obvious nap or one way design on the blue. It did feel slightly smoother stroking in one direction. The fabric is in two folded down the length pieces. I’ve allowed as much as possible at the bottom of each piece, in case we opt to make it longer.

I finally plucked up courage to cut it out.

Then, to put in a concealed zip. I don’t think I’ve put one in before, maybe a sample, but even that was a very long time ago (35 plus years at least). I had a quick look at YouTube and the first one that popped up was by Angela Wolf “How to Sew an Invisible Zipper Step by Step”. Sorry I can’t get it to link, but it was really good and very clear instructions.

She recommends an invisible zipper-foot, which I don’t have, but she said it could be done with an ordinary zipper-foot. Once it was pressed it looked ok, but once you move you could see it, and the bottom wasn’t quite right.

For a bit of advice, we took it to run past Janet, who showed us one that she’d done. It really was invisible, just looks like a seam. She has an Jenome invisible foot that looked as if it would fit my Brother machine, and I could borrow that. We also talked through my other uncertainties, which stopped me from trying to solve them in my head at 3.30 a.m. like the previous night, but yet to try them.

The foot works a treat, when you have the seam open in the right way! Fortunately the fabric was forgiving and hasn’t left a row of holes. The zip is in at last. Five lines of stitching when it really only needed two! The first two with the ordinary zipper foot worked as tacking stitches and, left in, will stop any fraying. It was only the third row that needed unpicking. The rest of the back seam was stitched (right side, see below) with a pretty invisible zip (on the left). Ok, it needs a bit more pressing, but I was pleased with it for a first attempt.

There was limited time before Alicia was going home, and I wanted to get the seams joined so that I could check the fit. I repeated the 3/8″ seams except on the centre front and back, which again are 5/8″. I joined the shoulders to check for fitting, knowing that I would need to undo them again to neaten all the seams. I finished with 10 minutes to spare, the bobbin ran out on the second shoulder seam….. but no, the top thread had broken!

There was just time to put it all on to check the fit. The lining appears inside out, as it has to be put on first, and the temporary zip done up from the inside. Then the dress goes over the top. It fits really well.

It needs a good press. There’s still a way to go yet: the seams neatening, the modesty panel at the front sorting out, the dress attaching to lining at the neck and armholes, and the hems on both layers. But at least I can now continue with it.