Saturday, February 4, 2012

Class samples IV

Moving right along ...
For the Sewing Workshop (Advanced) I decided to show a dress.  One piece to hang up - easy in many respects.  I decided on McCall's 5847 - in linen.
Blue threads going one way, yellow threads going the other way - overall effect - greenish.  I've had this fabric for a few years - a "find" in the clearance section.  Oddly enough, while it was stashed away, I kept thinking of it as being bright turquoise, which it is not.  A few tweaks were needed to make it fit, like a SBA, and I also narrowed the sleeve.  Didn't make the pocket flaps, mainly because I chickened out of extra buttonholes.  I am such a chicken when it comes to buttonholes.  That wasn't always the case.  I'm still dependent on my Platinum for making buttonholes, since the buttonhole foot for my "new" Bernina has not yet arrived.  The Platinum has it's quirks, and getting hung up on buttonholes is one of them.  Eight buttonholes marching down the front of the dress were almost enough to make me crazy.  I persevered.  I used Jane's tip from a while back on using washaway stabilizer when making buttonholes.  I even remembered to breath, at least in between buttonholes.  All went well.  No buttonholes needed to be ripped out.
There is an awful lot of stitching on this dress.  I even ran out of bobbing thread at one point - something that doesn't happen very often.  Princess seams - every one of them topstitched in double rows.  I could have made lapped seams, but I didn't.  I wanted to get this done as quickly as possible, so I simply serged and topstitched.  Oh, except for the sleeve seam, which I did lap, but that's because the sleeves needed to be rolled and the wrong side shows, and heaven forbid should something ugly show from the wrong side.  I used organza for interfacing.  Didn't want to fuse anything to this lovely linen, and it seemed to work well.
I made the belt, which looks somehow much brighter in the picture than in real life - a bit of an afterthought, but without the belt, the dress is somewhat shapeless, and I really didn't want a plain sash - at least not in this fabric.
I do think that I'll make another version of this at some point - perhaps a sleeveless, shorter version.

12 comments:

  1. I bet that linen looks even lovelier in person. Is there anything worse than ripping out a buttonhole? I can't imagine. My Bernina makes amazing buttonholes, so no stress.

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  2. What great detail and workmanship! No buttons had to be redone, wow! Hurray! because those were a lot of buttons to do.

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  3. I am enthralled with this sample dress. Wow! The belt is such a nice touch.

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  4. You have some awesome class samples. Your students should appreciate learning fine sewing and strive to sew as well as you.

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  5. It looks very chic and beautifully finished. Such a versatile style, would be nice and casual with a wide leather belt too I should think... and what is a buttonhole foot? I've never heard of such a thing; I use my ordinary foot, but I guess I don't have an automatic buttonholer on my machine either!
    So, would that be a blue warp and a yellow weft, or the other way around?

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  6. Gorgeous shirt dress! I love how the turquoise buttons and belt enhance the beautiful fabric.

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  7. This dress is wonderful! Soooo elegant, I love the finishing details and if it is true, I can not imagine anything more terrifying to boot buttonholer.

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  8. Oh this is just lovely.I do so love working with linen.And I hear you about making buttonholes and forgetting to breathe. My Kenmore Elite makes beautiful buttonholes. Oh dear I hope I didn't jinx it.Lol.

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  9. Beautiful dress, Irene. It's when a while since my last visit. Boy have I missed a lot. First I strolled down just to see the finished projects before reading. You've been super busy. This dress is so me. Love it.

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  10. wonderful, wonderful samples, Irene! I would love to take 1 of your classes!

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  11. The dress is so pretty. I love crosswoven fabrics; linen, silk, cotton. The two colors always adds extra interest to any garment made from it.

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