sewing 101: a flowery A-line dress

  

Simplicity's New Look pattern #6200 & Silky Patchwork fabric from JoAnn's

---

The zipper is in! Whew, what a task that was. We learned how to do a centered zipper in class, but of course my pattern called for a lapped zipper. I took some scrap yarn and followed the nice pictures in the Singer Sewing Essentials book and, miracle of miracles, it worked! But when I went to do the zipper on the actual dress, I realized that the seam allowance was too small to do all that stitching, particularly the top-stitching to finish the side that overlaps. Then I remembered that I'd read somewhere (totally forgotten where) that you can extend the seam allowance with bias tape, so I spent the boys' naptime driving to the fabric store for the tape. Tape on, zipper in, and voila!

Dressy fits pretty well now that the zipper's in. And doing the zipper wasn't so bad. Maybe now I can try knitting a sweater with a zipper (something like Joseph perhaps?). That way I can use the cute little zipper foot again. It's so neat! I did find the whole shift it to the left, then shift it to the right thing a little tricky though. At one point, I didn't know which side to put it on and apparently left it in the middle. Snap! First needle broken. Guess I'll have to make another trip to the store!

Sewing class was cancelled due to snow, but since I am such a good girl, I still did my homework. Okay, the fact that the boys needed to catch up on some sleep from being sick and took an extra long nap helped a lot! I stitched the armhole and neck facing for dressy. After cutting out the wee little pieces, fusing interfacing to them, and sewing them together to make the whole facing, the pattern called for teeny-tiny edgestitching all along on one edge (the edge of the facing that will just hang down and won't really be attached to the dress). So far I've loved the sewing, but this seemed soooo tedious to me. After finishing it though, I realized that it really does give the garment a neat finished look, which is one of the things I really like about sewing. I find great pleasure in a precise seam and polished shaping, things which don't come all too easily in knitted garments.

One thing I am having trouble with is the whole baste right sides together, turn this over, then stitch, flip back over, sew wrong side to this, then press right side, etc., etc. thing. Aack! What side am I supposed to be working on? What joins where to which piece? And these facings are the worst with their right side on the inside, so I gotta think all backwards about what's going where. I'm still not sure if I sewed them together right. I guess we'll find out when it's time to attach them to the bodice.

Coming next week, then, will Alison pass the sewing spatial abilities test, and what will become of the zipper?!

Dressy, my first big sewing project, is coming along nicely. For class this Thursday we were supposed to baste all the side seams together so we could try on our garments and do some precise fitting before sewing it up for real. What a difference from knitting! As long as you haven't cut the fabric too small, you can slip the thing on, pin it to fit, sew and cut away the excess. How practical. Of course with knitting, you've got to do all the fitting before making the garment. And unfortunately, I'm always unsure what it's going to look like when I put it on. I think an arm will be too long and it ends up too short, or that the waist will be perfect and it's too big. (I think I'm getting better, but we'll see how greensleeves comes out!) Maybe someday I'll be comfortable enough with steeking that I can sew and cut a new side seam for a sweater that has come out too wide. Maybe not.

Anyway, here is my dressy all basted together, adjusted to fit me, and ready for sewing. It looks huge on the hanger, but all the seam allowances are still there, and I'll be trimming almost two inches off of each side so it fits me perfectly. I love how the pattern formed a little group of blue and white flowers right down the backside. A good accident, for a change!

I made some progress on dressy, my first big sewing project. The front skirt panel is now attached to the front of the bodice, so it's finally starting to look like a dress. I couldn't get a good picture since it's so long - I'll have to wait on that until I can hang it up somehow. Anyway, except for the hem at the bottom, the front is finished. Comparing it to knitting, I'm guessing that I've done the equivalent of completing the back of a sweater, since the front of this dress is the easiest part with the simplest shaping and styling. The back is made up of more parts and has a zipper. Yikes! I did start on the back pieces in class on Thursday. Here is one half of the back of the bodice, which has been stay-stitched and has half the back tie attached. Purty.

In knitting news, I've begun to sew up elizabeth III. I was so anxious to see if it will fit this time, that I just sewed up enough of each seam to be able to slip it over my head and get a feel for how it will look. And... drumroll please... she's going to fit perfectly! Okay, I know I said that last time, but then I was thinking that adding the neckband would lift the sweater up quite a bit. Now that I know how it will hang when it is done, I can say with confidence that I knitted it just the right size - snug and shapely instead of big and baggy. It seems fitted just right through the waist and the length of the body and sleeves should be much better. Apparently, all the resizing calculations that I did were correct. I am so relieved! So now I have to finish sewing up the seams, add a neckband, weave in all the ends and then celebrate!!

[By the way, I am pro feeling like a woman, but con Shania Twain.]

I've been doing so much finishing lately, I wanted to get back to a project where I was still in that exciting starting phase. So I spent some time on dressy, my first sewing project. I last worked on dressy in sewing class on Thursday, where I managed to get through step one of the sewing directions: make darts. Well, with the help of a few of the Knitsmiths (who also do some sewing!), I made it all the way to step four! Here's the front of the bodice now with the front band attached. Next comes the front of the skirt and then she should start looking like a dress (I hope!).

I do enjoy a good dart. And here are some that I just made: elizabeth III has darts on front back and the arms (did I mention that I like darts?) and the bodice for the summer dress that I'm sewing (my first sewing project!) also has darts. It's not so easy to see but it ends at a little point on the bottom edge. This is the same piece that I posted last week with the pattern outline pinned to the fabric. Anyway, the darts were all I managed to do in sewing class last night. That was mostly because the next step looked complicated. Interfacing was involved. That's right, more ironing!

Blue is for knitting. And maybe a little sewing too? Here's part of my first big project pinned out and ready for cutting. I love the look of sewing patterns pinned to fabric, don't you? But it's awful hard to believe that it's going to end up being a dress. Pinning took just shy of forever. I don't suppose we'll get to any actual sewing in my natural lifetime. Despite my whining, I am really enjoying it. It's a lot more precise than knitting, but less worrisome - it's fairly reassuring to already have pieces that look like what they are supposed to be! It does seem as if it's one big finishing job, though: getting the pieces into the right shape, assembling, seaming. But somehow I like it more than finishing a sweater. Maybe it's just because I'm looking forward to using the machine again! I really enjoyed the feel of sewing while making the needle case. Uh oh, I think I'm hooked.

Oh, and in case you read the little article in the new Interweave Knits about knitblogs and were wondering: no, I'm not Ivete. What up wit' dat?!