The Train, Horsehair Braid & I'm An Idiot

The other day I heard someone say "if you're coming over to see me. you're welcome anytime, but if you're coming over to see my house, make an appointment."  My sewing room is a mess please ignore or make an appointment and I'll tidy up. 

Yesterday I managed to cut out the 7 main pieces of the skirt it took me nearly 3 hours but I am glad that I took my time…”measure twice cut once is what they say.”  What took the longest was tapering evenly from the top of the toe in the front to the back so that there is a small train of lace.  I had to make sure that I stayed on track with the scalloped edge so that although the skirt has seven long seams that the hem look continuous.

This is the front panel and you can see how the curved hem
of the pattern piece and the scalloped edge of the fabric don't
line up.  That's okay because I will take advantage of it to
 make the tapered train.
 

Close up of scalloped edging pinned together.



This is the side view where you can see the panels tapering from
 the center front on the right side of the photo and then increasing
 in length as it moves toward the back on the left. 

 

I bought some neat nylon horsehair braid edging that sews in under the lace all around the edge.  It holds the edges and it does a pretty good job.  In this photo I have everything pinned together…the seams, the waist, and the horse hair braid around the edge.

Horsehair nylon braid barely visible.

 Even though the horsehair stabilizes the edge when there is movement the train doesn’t retain its nice shape so I think that the train will need to be arranged by one of the maids-of-honor.

 

I tried to put some light weight organza to line the backside of the lace but it showed through so I scrapped that idea. 

I keep peaking in my sewing room to see if any new ideas spark and hoping maybe the 'cleaning fairies' will have come to visit.  I love how the train looks but I don’t want it to hang up on anything and I somehow want it to kind of maintain the nice circular shape.

Oh and remember when I described my awesome idea for raising the height on the dressform and then locking the wheels?  I'm an idiot. 

I accidentally pushed the form just a little and it came off of the blocks.  I leapt and caught her just in time.  I managed to get her back up on the blocks so back to the drawing board.