HAPPY FALL

It is a beautiful day!  Zippy my cat and I went to scope out the leaf situation and I think that about half of the leaves have fallen off my trees.  I swept off the walk only to come back later in the afternoon and see all my hard work  covered up with leaves again.  That’s what happens when you live in the woods.  I opened the doors to let the warm air in and settled down to work on Brittney’s wedding dress.

It is a whole different ball game making a dress pattern on your own.  If I get stumped while I am sewing I just pull out in the instructions.  But with this dress, since I designed the pattern it’s up to me to figure out how to put it together and write the instructions myself.

Right now I am working on the neckline (still muslin) and I have finished it to see what it will look like when I make it up out of silk.  At $80 per yard I don’t want to cut anything out until I know it is going to go together properly.  (Sorry about the crazy color this fabric is white).

 

I sewed the dress to the lining from center back to center back and turned it inside out.  I gave it a good pressing and then sewed really close to the edge on the inside. 

The lace comes around from the center back, around the neckline and then back behind the neck.  If you look close you can see a little seam where the sleeve and the front attach.  Right now it is about 1 1/4 inches wide.  When I finish off the arm opening I will need to take an additional ½” on the left up to the pin.  That leaves the seam only ¾” wide.

 

The lace is nearly 3” wide so when it comes across that seam there isn’t a whole lot of dress to sew it on to.  Plus that leaves some of the vine on the lace hanging off  the shoulder. I’m not really worried... just thinking out loud.

 

I think that I will add ½” around the arm opening, that way I will have 1 1/4" of material to attach the lace to.  The lace is attached to netting so I am going to cut very carefully in between the vines to see if  I can coax the lace to make a beautiful turn. 

I know that this is a bit technical but I thought it was worth noting especially if you are following along and you too want to make a wedding dress.

This week I learned:

1.   As much as I am tired of using muslin...it is valuable to make sure my pattern is accurate before cutting the real deal.

2.   It is pointless to rake leaves until they have all fallen.