Last Dress of 2019

There's a somewhat complicated project I've been trying to convince my self to start for...uh...years, and I thought about starting it yesterday, but I knew I wouldn't be able to work on it today, so I made my excuse be "that would break the flow" and so I sewed a quick dress instead

And while, yes, I did manage to get it made in one day (that day being yesterday, and I'm wearing it now), it still wasn't as quick as I expected.




The big speed bump was that the floral fabric--something I thrifted in a bag with lots of of authentic feedsack, almost all of which went onto eBay--was something I thought had a big flaw in it, but I didn't see anything marking it, so I assumed I mis-remembered and went ahead with cutting out the bodice, using the top from Simplicity 9153 (with facings/neckline modified using pieces from McCall's 6453.)  I cut the Large width on the sides, but the Medium width at the sleeves, to get it to fit on the ikat stripe fabric (another generous bit from the family destash person, thanks again!)  I had originally planned to cut the facings from a contrast print, but there was enough of the ikat to easily cut the facings, so I did that.  Yeah, I know, that's what a normal person does.  It matters later.  Kinda.

Then I laid out the fabric to cut the skirt--I like to make the skirts on these dresses 22" long, and there was just enough of the floral print to do that.

And that's when I found the flaw that was indeed on the cloth--a stain I hadn't been able to completely remove, with some tiny holes along its edge to boot.

So.

I considered choosing a different print completely, or maybe adding a third visible print, but the Brain was Being Stubborn.  And then I remembered the four strips of the ikat that I had put aside, that had been ripped (by a previous owner) along the lengthwise grain, and I wondered if I could use them.

Now, of course, since I make things hard by default, I do not make the skirts for these dresses from simple rectangles, oh no.  They're gathered A-lines, with curved hems, which means, whenever I want to add something not-ruffled to the hem, the added bit also has to be curved.

I was able to eke out the two curved ikat bands and use the remaining (non-damaged) floral to make the wider band.  Success!

And loads of top stitching.  I did the upper-most top stitching before sewing the skirt front and back together--before attaching the pocket bags, actually, because the pocket was going to be in the way

(hello, other print)  I waited until the skirt side seams were sewn before top stitching all the way around the rest of the bands.

...and...still a bit short.  Time to dig into the lace case

which gets a picture here because the lace had been living in a bed-in-a-bag bag that was awkwardly stuffed into the closet next to the fabric shelf.  It was in that bag because it had outgrown the suitcase it had been stored in before.  A few weeks ago I decided I had had enough of that awkwardness and would buy a suitcase for it, and this was in the first thrift store I checked.  It just holds the volume of lace and trim, so I need to try to remember to use that stuff more, right?  Since the suitcase fits in a much-easier-to-access space now, maybe I will.  Maybe I will...

Anyway.

Wide ivory eyelet was a possibility, but I didn't quite like it, so I dug around for more options.  Now, I'm not exactly a lace snob, but there are certain patterns of lace that are just...overly common.  But the color of one of those was very well-suited to this dress, so I considered it and kept looking--ooh!  a very wide cluny...in an overly common pattern.  Ehn, I (obviously) could live with it.

It was getting late (that's part of the reason these pictures are so blah) and I didn't want to try to cut the lace to the correct length and sew a seam before sewing onto the hem.  Instead, I sewed the raschel lace to the cluny and then flipped the seam allowance inside and made that the upper edge, starting there and sewing all the way around.  When I got near the end, I stopped sewing, cut the laces, flipped them around so I could make a seam in the end, flipped them right-side-out again, then continued sewing, lapping the end under the start.  (and, yeah, I was lazy and used the red thread that sewed the rest of the dress, so that red is real visible when you're this close)

And then I used ivory thread to hand stitch the lapped edges to each other.  The stitching is not pretty.

At some point I sewed the bodice--I usually sew the bodice first, but, this time, I think I sewed the skirt-minus-lace, then made the bodice, attached the skirt to the bodice, and then fiddled with the lace.  There's nothing noteworthy about the bodice, beyond this particular project's whole "if I had used a different print for the facings then I would have had so much more of the ikat to use to extend the skirt" thing

 Serged and fusible-interfacing-ed facings, edge stitching, tacking at the shoulder seams

 Arm holes finished with the 3/16" hemmer

And here is the back!  Maybe someday I'll make one of these without complications creative flourishes.

Edit: Here it is in action on July 25, 2020

The cotton lace condensed a bit, allowing more of the raschel lace to show.