The Dress

The weather in our area has been up and down. Wednesday was sunny and warm (low 70F’s) and Thursday started out cloudy and cooler though our overnight temperature was quite warm. I did plant pansies at the pond in the morning. Some are small and others are huge. Today I need to do some more transplanting.

I finished another shirt. I had to wait for an order of crystals to arrive as I was short around 60 crystals and had to buy 288 to complete the project.

The back of the shirt has a small design on it with crystals. I used two dark purple with one light purple.  I outlined the yoke to give it some definition. The piping is custom made and has both crystal colours in it.

The front and sleeves of the shirt has more detail. I did add the small flowers to the large rose on both the front and back. With this retro yoke I am always afraid that I will place my designs too close to the edge of the yoke and loose part of the design when I turn it under with a facing I make. The sleeves have lots of design embroidered on them giving them the focal point on this shirt.

I  worked hard on the dress yesterday morning. I got the front done to a point where I need to figure out about the sleeves. I had to do some adjusting but I think I have it looking fairly nice now.

It looks a little big in the back but I will adjust that when I put on the skirt. Easy fix. There are no facings just a lining. Once I know how to adjust the top, I will take it in.

After lunch, I did the lining and started on the skirt. After a lot of work I got it ready to sew the side seams by pinning the dress together inside out.

It doesn’t look pretty but it is an easy way to do a fitting. Especially as this person has a pear body shape, something I haven’t sewn for before.

And the muslin ready for sleeves.

Ready for the sleeves and some trial and error embroidery. And then onto the next dress. Unfortunately my back aches when I sit in a chair and sew most of the day.