So, how dumb do you have to be to sew through your fingertip three times within a single day of sewing? Answer: pretty dumb.

I’m dogsitting this weekend, so I’m sewing away from home, and I realized this morning after I unpacked my machine and all my stuff that…my machine was still set up for embroidery, and had the wrong presser foot, and the correct one was, um, at home, which is a two hour round trip.

My options were to walk over to the Viking dealer and get a new foot (estimated cost: $25) or go and see what generic feet they had at Fabric Hell. I got a basic metal zipper foot for $2.99 and used that all day. Which worked pretty well, really, except that it messed with my perception of where my fingers should be, resulting in the bandaged hands that are causing me to type badly.

First major challenge: the invisible zipper. I’ve never done one before, but my least favorite part of doing this skirt with a sheer overskirt (which is not called for in the pattern) is the clunkiness of the zipper area. So I decided to try an invisible zipper, and bought the special crappy little plastic presser foot that they sell next to the zippers. Which I will now pronounce to be Fucking Useless. I am definitely getting a metal one for the next time I want to try this. Feh.

The zipper does look rather good. I wish I had planned it better, though, because there are motifs on either side of the zipper and the zipper wants to get caught in the threads. Not a huge tragedy, just something I could have done better.

After that, the rest of the construction went well. I did a French seam at the back of the sheer fabric, but I’m going to whip the seams on the sides, because they’re curved. So I see a lot of handwork in my future.

I underlined the yoke area with the same cotton twill I’m planning to use to underline the bodice, and that worked very well.

Now I need to find shoes, because I can’t do anything about the bottom edge until I find shoes. I also need to decide if I want a petticoat underneath it. I kind of do, and I have a metric buttload of pink tulle in my stash, so I think I should just go ahead and do it. I can gather the tulle really quickly by messing with the tension on my machine, so it should be a quick project. Because hey, big pink petticoat. If I can get a good deal on those cheap spool o’ ribbon things, maybe I’ll do a ribbon edge on the bottom tier. Hmmmmm.