bodice

full

back detail (during ceremony; color is off because of the church lighting)

I was really happy with the skirt, but less so with the top. I am told that I’m the only person fixated on this, though, so I will just get over it at some point.

Things I wish I had done differently:

• underlined the sleeves with organza or something – they didn’t have enough body, especially next to the rest of the bodice, which was underlined, and they wrinkled if I just looked at them.
• used more boning in the bodice. I have spring steel in the princess seams, the side seams, and the back darts, but I wish I had used more to keep it smoother.
• gotten the neckline right – it was too high in the back, even after I cut it way down, and I have many photos which feature my bra strap, even though I had used lingerie keepers in the shoulders. Maybe because I did, since it having the shoulders set in place sometimes made the neckline gap. It just could have been better.

Detail of the bodice – the beading is a grid of three 4mm Swarovski crystals, filled in with #10 tricut delicas, also in threes. Triune beading, I guess. The band at the neckline continues around the back.

Pillowcase created with transfers from Sublime Stitching, plus jumbo red rickrack!

I need to set the record straight here about the bias binding on the edge of the sleeves. I know a lot of words are getting tossed around – words like, “stupid screwup-ed sleeves” and “incompetent pattern alterations” and “don’t have enough fabric to re-cut.”

BUT, really, I always intended for there to be a narrow bias binding on the hem of the sleeves. Which is why I cut them without a proper hem when I altered the pattern to make the sleeves longer. Because I’m a design genius like that.

Tonight’s notions star: the Fasturn, which has made short work of making button loops for the back of the top. I used the 1/8″ size and it cranked them right out.

People who like to sew in their pajamas and who also like to use their clothing as a pincushion should check their jammies for pins before going to bed. I’m just sayin’.

Usual disclaimers re: suckage of my camera.

Skirt

Hulk Petticoat

I finished the skirt at 1:00 this morning! Yay! The bottom half of my body is done!

There has been progress in the skirt department. On Wednesday, I stayed home from work and sewed all day. I finished the petticoat. It’s huge and lime green. I call it the Hulk Petticoat. Hulk like fluffy petticoat!

I ended up doing a mishmash of the two pattern views, with a totally different waistband. The pattern had a 4″ waistband just made of knit fabric, which seemed bulky and prone to rolling when I made a test version out of an old t-shirt. So I got out the waistband interfacing and made a normal waistband. The petticoat has two layers of net, each of which has two tiers of scratchy nylon net, and the bottom tier of ribbon-edged green tulle. There is a 12″ ruffle at the bottom of the outer taffeta layer, which is 6 yards long and hemmed with horsehair. It’s very rustly and loud and fun. And so very, very lime. Makes me want a margarita. Ok, lots of things make me want a margarita.

The lining of the petticoat is cheap Posh lining from fabric hell, and I swear it was green when I bought it. In the store, it looked like a nice darkish sage green (the color choice was a bit limited, but for 99 cents a yard I wasn’t being all that picky). No, it’s grey. Really grey. I have no idea what went wrong with my eyes and their ability to see color, but I have a grey lining on the petticoat. I cut the lining a bit short and finished the edge with green 2″ seam finish lace, so if it does show at all when I’m sitting down, hopefully only the lace will be visible. I bought the package of lace for a quarter at the last white elephant sale; it was the right color and I knew it would come in handy at some point.

It’s a good thing that I picked flat shoes, since the skirt just barely makes it over the petticoat. I don’t have a lot of extra hem to play with.

This is ok, since I’m planning to just do a narrow horsehair hem on the underskirt anyway. I took this little show to Ryan’s last night and stood on a stool in her doorway while she marked the hem. We had the front door open, so I’m sure that anyone driving by wondered why there was some kind of huge green amazon woman in the house.

The overskirt is going to have a bound hem, using the silk from the top. This involved cutting huge strips of bias, which is very scary. It’s like, you know, math. And I didn’t have enough fabric to be able to screw it up. So I did what anyone would do when faced with a bias project: I enlisted a quilter. They live and breathe bias binding. My friend Joan makes gorgeous quilts, and she helped me get all of the strips cut and sewn together and folded, so I can sew them to the skirt today. I was just so intimidated by that part! She has a big rotary mat and multiple rulers, though, so it all went quickly.

I really want to finish the skirt so that I can go back to dealing with the top. I just want to have something finished you know?