Sewing is Art

Today was a big enough deal I made sure to secure a (borrowed) camera: I got my new sewing machine, a Juki HZL-E80. And I popped its cherry right away, whipping up the underskirt for Suse's dress (both from Ottobre's 01/1007 issue):


The underskirt took about twenty minutes.


P.S. No pictures in this series indicate how very, very much Nels wants to wear this dress. And dance /sing to Justin Timberlake's "Summer Love."


Darn flash makes dress look bright. Dress is actually rather subdued.

Labels: dresses, maquina de coser, Nels, Sophie

Nels' coat is finished; however the back-zipper just really was a pain in my balls and I did a horrible job (next time; back to a more traditional and less Ottobre-tricky method). I left it with the local Italian seamstress matriarch because I knew if I tried it again, I might not end up with better results. OK, so now that my corset materials have arrived I can get back to it, eh?

Um, not yet, I guess.


Clam in the sand.

Yesterday at the thrift store my daughter spied this dress, a small (size 6?), slim little sleeveless number:


I just loved the aqua-and-olive color scheme, although I wasn't too inspired by the print. Still, Sophie pointedly said, "Mom, I want you to get this dress and sew it smaller for me." The little weasel knows I can do this and truthfully, her dresses are looking a little threadbare. OK, OK, one more project and then the corset. Oh yeah, and first, a sewing night with a would-be student. OK, OK.


On a quick and easy project like this I use what I already have; in this case, some of my Coats & Clark thread I'm trying to weed out, as well as some decades-old bias tape for the bodice arm edges (I'm thinking the bias tape is as old as the era the fabric print is trying to emulate).


I love this! The dress had four sets of darts: underarm, french (featured above), and on the back - shoulders, waist. The front of the dress is the wrong side out and I topstitched the darts down. It adds structure and would be a definitely fabulous idea for a plainweave or small-pattern print.

Hems:

OK. Double straight stitch the bottom, then pink.


First.


Second.

My parallel stitching was actually a spiral (that's why it's offset) meaning I had four loose threads to gather and invisible-knot. Perfect hem!


Finis.

Flickr tag set with more notes.

Labels: dresses