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发表于 2010-11-12 00:04:31
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来自: 广东深圳
I have to say I'm liking the way our red dress is shaping up. Shall we go onward? Onward, then!
Now that we've done the princess seams, shoulder seams, neckline, and both sleeves, we'll need to do the zipper. Deep breath, everybody...
First we'll baste the center back seam:
Now we'll lay the zipper on the center back seam and discover it's too long:
And now we'll shorten the zipper:
We'll do that by zigzagging over the zipper where we want the new stop to be, using a stitch length of 0. Then, either tie the thread ends, or move the needle over to one side and stitch in place several stitches. I wanted the zipper to stop a couple of inches above the waist seam.
Now, because we want a lapped zipper, we're going to take the zipper and place it on the left seam allowance, okay? The side of the zipper coil needs to touch the basted seam. In a center zipper application, the teeth go right on top of the seam. For this one, the coil goes right up next to it.
Now, with a zipper foot, we're going to baste the zipper tape to the seam allowance. Remember to breathe. Don't bite your tongue off.
When we get to the zipper pull, we'll just put the needle down in the fabric, lift the foot up, and weasel that baby down out of the way. Then put the foot down and finish going up the zipper tape.
Now we're going to flip the zipper right side up and stitch that fold right up close to the zipper coil:
I should actually have folded that fold closer even than I did to that coil, as we shall see in a minute.
Now we're going to grab the free zipper tape and yank it to the other seam allowance:
Pin that, baste that, and flip the whole thing right side out so we're looking at the back of the bodice:
And we're going to put in that topstitching you see there. From the basted seam, across the bottom of the zipper tape, and up to the top. I realize that there are all kinds of tricks to make the perfect topstitched zipper, but I *gasp* eyeballed it.
My only issue with the finished zipper was that unevenness (can you see it?) at the neck edge. Sometimes, despite our best efforts, crazy stuff like this happens. The rest of the back fits together perfectly, so why did the neck edge end up uneven? Probably the slick-slippery fabric. (Certainly not my own fault, for sure.)
So at this point, we probably should rip out the whole thing and figure out why it's uneven, and sew it up again.
You don't want to? Can't say I blame you.
Here you can see what I did instead of the ripping I would have done if I were a good girl:
And this photo shows the next step also. Yes, that is a hair covered elastic rubber band thing, and not some special button loop. I tied it off the size I wanted it, and whipstitched it in place.
Adding a covered button gives us this:
Now we'll pin the side seams up:
Matching, of course, the waistline clip, the armhole seam, the hem and the sleeve hem. We'll sew those, finish those, press, turn it right side out....
And there's our bodice!
Back view:
Not too shabby!
See how that zipper still shows juuust a little? I think it had to do with not pushing that fold close enough to the zipper coil. Still, it's not enough to bother me.
At this point, I did create the skirt, but, due to overestimation of my own skill, had to spend most of the afternoon getting comfortable with my seam ripper. I figure that a seam ripper isn't designed to make you hate life, it's just around when you are, so you project your feelings onto it at the time. So, since I figure there are about two ways you can feel about ripping seams, and your seam ripper doesn't care either way, we all might just as well make peace with this harmless, helpful tool.
Breathing in. Breathing out. I love my seam ripper.
And I will see you back here, for more red dress fun, after I find where I've thrown it.
Remind me, would you, not to start a project that runs headlong into the holidays ever again?
Thank you.
Yesterday, between the children's dentist appointments in the morning and the live nativity scene in the evening, I was able to finish the red dress. I'll show you.
First, I took a doubled-over-and-ruffled strip and sewed it to the bottom of the bodice. The bodice lining and the bodice were basted together.
Then I took the first tier strip, which was 1.5 times the length of the waist seam, and sewed the ends together to make a circle. Ran two rows of gathering threads along the top edge of it, turned it upside down, and stuck the bodice inside it:
Matched the tier edge with the bodice edge, pulled up the gathering threads, sewed that seam, and, when I'd finished, edgestitched that seam in place. That helped the little ruffle point down, like it's supposed to.
Did the whole thing again:
And again:
As you see, there wasn't enough little ruffle to finish the hem of the bottom tier, a thing I would have done if I'd had enough. As it is, though, a 1/4" double-fold topstitched hem works nicely.
Now, since we did all the finishing work on the bodice, we're finished with the entire dress. For me, for some reason, it's easier to do all the finishing stuff, buttonholes, zippers, any handsewing, before I put the skirt and bodice together. Once it looks like a dress, and I can see in reality what my idea is going to look like, my creative drive lies down to take a nap, and it's me, alone, gritting my teeth and slogging through the nitpicky details. So I trick myself by doing those unrewarding details first, and the most rewarding detail last. That way I keep that finicky creative drive with me until the end. It's completely psychological, I understand, but really, what isn't?
Now what's left is that gold net overdress. It should go together very quickly. If I can fit it in between the stocking stuffer shopping and the caroling...
Hello, again, everyone! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. Today we're going to finish up our red dress with gold net overdress. What? It's after Christmas and we're still working on a Christmas dress? Yes. There's one more Sunday in December and red and gold aren't off limits yet. Note to self, though. Start Christmas dresses in early November.
Let's finish up, shall we?
First, we'll sew the skirt side seams:
Then the bodice shoulder seams:
To finish the edges of this net fabric, (which was awfully difficult to photograph) I've just zigzagged with a wide, short stitch that rolled the edge inward and finished it with a very fine gold hem.
I decided, after all, just to do one puff on the sleeve. Knowing the rule that any time anything needs to be divided visually, a ratio of 2/3 to 1/3 looks the nicest to our eyes, I put the gathering 5" up on a 15" sleeve:
I just put elastic thread in the bobbin and sewed with the longest stitch on my machine, then sewed again 1/4" away from the first stitching, flattening the fabric as I went. You can see the knots I've tied at the ends of the stitching there. That way they won't pull out.
Now we'll run two rows of gathering threads along the sleeve cap and set that into the armhole, pulling the bobbin threads until the sleeve fits the hole, of course:
And now the side seams, from hem to armhole seam to sleeve edge:
And, turning that whole thing right side out:
Very nice.
Now I'll take the skirt, which we sewed together earlier, and, matching the side seams, sew the waist seam:
But look! There in the front! The skirt and the bodice don't match up right there. Ah. I remember why. When I cut the pattern, instead of drawing the neckline to exactly the center front, I drew it to a point that was one dart-width away from the center front, to allow room for the ribbon bow. I simply forgot to take that out of the skirt as well.
No problem, though. Since we made the pattern, we know immediately where the mistake is, and since we know our mistake, we know we won't ruin anything by just taking our scissors and fixing that mistake right there in the fabric. I just laid both sides on top of each other, and reshaped that scallop.
Now I've run my short, wide zigzag around the entire edge:
And here's the back:
Now we're going to apply the ribbon. I just place the top edge right at the waistline seam, and edgestitch it down, then, returning to the same side whence I began my stitching, edgestitched the other side.
And, unexpectedly, I'm not as in love with it as I thought I'd be. I don't much like the way the ribbon makes the net stand out, especially in the back. Of course, I have yet to see it modeled by a real child, but a dress form is pretty close, and that seems like a long shot. Hm.
Because the gold net overdress was such a wide-open creative shot, though, I did make sure to make the red dress completely autonomous, so that it could be worn alone if the gold didn't work out. These things can go either way. Often, when I take a chance like this, I come up with something fabulously different. Sometimes, it gets hung in a closet until I can bear to give it away.
We can still play with it, though. What do you think? What would you do now? Cut it off at the waist and add ties made of the net to make a shrug-type garment? Scrap it altogether? Suggestions?
Regardless of what we decide to do with the overdress, I'll post photos of the finished product, modeled by a real human being, on Monday.
Until then,
And at (very long) last, here are the final pictures of our red silk dress.
Here it is with the overdress, which, again unexpectedly, I liked a lot more once it was on my daughter:
And, except for that ribbon that would ripple, no matter what I did, (some fancy footwork with a glue stick might have helped me out here, come to think of it), I like the back too:
Here it is without the net. Sorry for having cut her head off, but you would not have liked her expression...
And here's the back, complete with wrinkles from sitting on it in church:
What I love is those cap sleeves, the shirred center panel, the neckline shape, the little ruffles in the skirt, and the sleek look of the zipper and button on the back. Were I to do this same dress again, I'd keep the shirring to the area below the neckline, because I'm not sure the shirring up to the shoulder has the visual impact to make it worth how fiddly that was. I also think I'd gather the skirt of the net overdress at the waist to give it more fullness.
Now I'll be taking a hiatus from projects for a little while, so that I can a) finish redoing the basic patterns and b) move my family back to California. I'll pop in here to let you know when I've got the patterns done, but the projects will have to wait until we're settled on the other side of the country. If, however, anybody would like to do a guest project in my absence, contact me and I'll get you set up.
I think when I unpack my sewing machine and get the dress form put back together, that we need to start work on the Christmas present I couldn't find but wanted so badly for my little people: The Ultimate Dress-Up Box. Yes. I think that will be very nice.
Thank you all so much for playing along with me. I love the part of my day when I hear from each of you, and watching our projects unfold together. You are brilliant, creative people, and I adore you all.
And we'll play together some more when the sewing machine comes out again, this time, near the great, cold, Pacific.
Until then, |
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