Well, here it is folks. I finished it last night and wore it to work today, so it may look a little wrinkled, but I like it just fine.
Of course, as any seamstress knows, you need to be prepared for anything and be flexible. So here's some of the "challenges" I encountered last night while making my dress:
1) I needed to use a needle for stretchy fabrics. Apparently, this cotton fabric had enough stretch that it caused the needle to skip stitches with a regular needle.
2) This was going to be a summer dress and needed to be lined in the bodice. Did I want to be miserable and making the lining with a poly fabric? I don't think so! I had the most perfect, also berry colored, very light cotton fabric. The only thing--there wasn't enough of it. So I did a little creative fabric joining and voila--the bodice lining worked!
3) Even though I have 50 zillion zippers, I didn't have the right color or size. Even when I went to the fabric store, they didn't have the perfect matching color, but the zipper had fabric overlapping it, so it really didn't matter.
4) I did all the adjustments to this pattern to fit my figure now...wow I remember when all I used to do was hem it shorter. Now I adjust the shoulders so the bodice doesn't gape, I bring down the bust, a bring out the waist, and adjust the skirt in conjunction with the new bodice length.
5) By the way, to make your zippers really come out nice and even, I machine sew one side and then I handbaste the other side to match with it exactly, especially at the waist. And then I machine sew the hand-sewn side, and then take the handsewing out.
6) The other change I'm still thinking about is I'm not sure that the bolero jacket I had planned for the flower fabric will fit the bill. I mean, the bolero jacket is perfect for the large flower fabric, and I even have thin white cotton to use for a lining. The problem is, I'm not convinced that a different fabric will look right with my pink dress. I'm going to mull it over some more.
I've learned that if I'm not convinced about something I'm sewing, I stop and think about it for a while. This prevents a lot of ripping out, to be sure. Sometimes the answer just comes to me, and I always think it's my grandma giving me a hand.
I love the neckline on this dress and I think it's a flattering style. And it's comfortable!
Happy sewing to you all!
