Give Me Time

March 1-2, 2014

Our constant problem is the ticking of the clock as it whittles away at our ability to accomplish the tasks we've set for ourselves.

Our New Favorite Tool: Fabric Weight

We began the weekend by looking over our notes from the previous sewing session. We had purchased new needles size 60s and wanted to know if they would make any difference with the silk. To our disappointment, they did not.  We went back to our tried and trusted 70/8 Microtex sharps.  We also found we preferred the sulky viscose rayon to the silk thread I bought.  We may still want the finer needles when sewing the chiffon and gossamer layers.  We'll have to wait and see.

Jenny hard at work

We went out and bought boning for the bodice, and got to work assembling the new pattern.  But before we could get to making the bodice out of silk, we began working on added panels to the satin skirt.  Teresa wanted a fuller look, so we took it apart and created new panels.  We made 4 more panels that are self-lined, but time ran out before we could sew the panels back together.

These panels have a back and front to them because the silk wrinkles easily and the right side has fewer wrinkles.  We also noted that we need to remember several things when we put the dress together:

• We need to build in spaghetti straps to the bodice.
• We need to build in hanging straps to the dress.
• We are worried that we might need to buy more silk for the bodice to have it self lined because we used more than we planned to make the skirt.

New Top with Crinoline

However, we did make a list of accomplishments:

1. We lengthened the bodice, and it fits great.
2. We gathered the side seams on the bodice to make darts. This gave it a nicer shape.  

When put into a list, it seems a small a set of accomplishments!

New Back of Dress

Things we need to consider:
We need to sew the muslin bodice to the muslin skirt to fit it to Teresa without clips.
We need to start working on the gossamer and chiffon layers to practice sewing on them.

New Front of Dress 

Teresa needs to wear exactly what she plans to wear under the dress from now on so we can be sure the fitting is exact.

Our goals for next time:
1. Piece together the skirt
2. Play with the sheer layers.
3. Make the real bodice of silk.
4. Decide on the sheer overlay for the bodice--spaghetti straps or satin?
5. Begin the appliqué applications.