Dress-Up

I mentioned in some of my I like posts that I recently had to attend a black tie even for work. Since I inherited a bunch of fancy fabric from a friend of my mom (thanks Georgia!) I figured it was a great opportunity to make a dress. I picked This pattern because the princess seamed construction and silhouette is one I've made many times before and the asymmetry adds some interest.

It wasn't a hard pattern to sew, but it did take a while.  One thing I didn't think about is that because of the asymmetry, each pattern piece had to be cut out separately (i.e. not on the fold or on a doubled piece of fabric).  And the pattern did a terrible job explaining how to attach the lining to the outer part.  I've made lined dresses before but they always had sleeves, and the sleeveless dresses I've made previously had facings rather than linings.  In any case I finally found a youtube video (which of course I can't find now) that helped me figure it out.

I also wound up having to make a facing for the black skirt.  In small print on the pattern envelope it said "reverse side of overskirt shows" or something to that effect.  I didn't think much of it until after I'd completely finished an hemmed the overskirt.  I realized that because of the angle on the front (and back) of the black skirt, where the fabric falls into folds you could see the reverse of the fabric.  It was ugly, with seams and visible hem, and the off color that the back of velvet is.  It really made the whole thing look unacceptably crafty to my eyes.  There weren't any skirt facing pieces in the pattern, but I just made my own using the bottom of each skirt piece, so now the reverse side just looks like the front.  It was a lot of extra work the night before the event, but I think it was worth it.

I had a good time braiding up my hair (which is still pretty short for braiding, but I made it work), but sadly didn't get a very good picture.  It was pretty dark at the event and at my friends' house where we were getting ready.  We did have a good time at the dinner though; I talked more about that in my I like post a couple weeks back.  I am especially pleased with the invisible-ness of my invisible zipper- I've had trouble with those before, but this one went in very smoothly!

After scurrying around like a crazy person trying to finish the dress, I felt the need for something easy and low stress.  I've been wanting to make a sewing machine cover for my bernina embroidery machine for a while, but never got around to it.  I don't use it very often and it really should be covered up.  It's a really strange shape, but I pieced up some brightly colored quarter square triangles (hourglass blocks?) and then after some loose measurements came up with this.  It fits pretty well all things considered, and I love seeing the bright colors when I walk into my studio.

Have you done any clothes sewing lately?  I have a bunch of fabric, but I think this might be all the clothes sewing I do for a while!