Progress!
After a quick trip to Henry's for lunchy stuff for the week, I managed to come home and get a bit of sewing done...
I busted out not only the serger, but also the zigzag sewing machine (which i only ever use under extreme duress, as it's rather finicky, and I don't often need to do anything that my grandmother's old straight stitch Singer can't handle). I overlocked the sleeve seam, and then zig-zagged the black picot trim onto the edge that will be a ruffle. I love the way the trim looks, and I'm contemplating buying another yard and a half to stick around the neckline just in case the lining wants to peek through. I'll bring the sleeves to work tomorrow so that I can do the gathering around the top and at the elbow while I'm at lunch. It's going to look so pretty!
I also stitched the last few rows of cording on the corded petticoat! Whoo hoo! Only slightly not... The cording isn't stiff enough/the circumference is too wide for it to stand out on its own, so I'm left with the following options:
1. break down and starch the sucker
2. put in some hoop wire at the top, like on sarahnucci's corded petticoat. (I'm liking this idea right now, since hers turned out so nicely).
3. hand-sew in more cords in between the rows, so it gets even stiffer
4. trim off some of the extra width, so the cording doesn't have to work quite so hard against gravity (i'm not loving this idea, since I went to all the trouble of sewing it in the first place).
This also means that I probably won't be wearing it under my LoJ gown (not only because it might not be finished in time, but because my blue fabric might not be wide enough to go from my waist to the floor over a petticoat). I'll probably just throw together a bumroll or something to give the skirts a little extra oomph.
Tomorrow: sleeve assembly, and probably more angsting over the skirts.
I busted out not only the serger, but also the zigzag sewing machine (which i only ever use under extreme duress, as it's rather finicky, and I don't often need to do anything that my grandmother's old straight stitch Singer can't handle). I overlocked the sleeve seam, and then zig-zagged the black picot trim onto the edge that will be a ruffle. I love the way the trim looks, and I'm contemplating buying another yard and a half to stick around the neckline just in case the lining wants to peek through. I'll bring the sleeves to work tomorrow so that I can do the gathering around the top and at the elbow while I'm at lunch. It's going to look so pretty!
I also stitched the last few rows of cording on the corded petticoat! Whoo hoo! Only slightly not... The cording isn't stiff enough/the circumference is too wide for it to stand out on its own, so I'm left with the following options:
1. break down and starch the sucker
2. put in some hoop wire at the top, like on sarahnucci's corded petticoat. (I'm liking this idea right now, since hers turned out so nicely).
3. hand-sew in more cords in between the rows, so it gets even stiffer
4. trim off some of the extra width, so the cording doesn't have to work quite so hard against gravity (i'm not loving this idea, since I went to all the trouble of sewing it in the first place).
This also means that I probably won't be wearing it under my LoJ gown (not only because it might not be finished in time, but because my blue fabric might not be wide enough to go from my waist to the floor over a petticoat). I'll probably just throw together a bumroll or something to give the skirts a little extra oomph.
Tomorrow: sleeve assembly, and probably more angsting over the skirts.