I had a fitting with Rachel W. today and it went really well. I’m going to share some more thoughts and pictures of my process. Now before you get all critical on me and say, “This dress has a LONG way to go!” I will tell you, “Yes, this dress does have a long way to go.” There are a lot of steps and fittings involved to get that end result of an amazing perfectly fit gown. I had the dress basted together for a fitting and promptly took it apart again to continue building it from the inside-out.
The Sheer Outer Layer
Here I am working on sewing together the pieces for the sheer outer-most layer of the dress. When you have sheer fabric, you really need to do a french seam. To sew a french seam you basically sew the garment inside out, trim it, and then flip it over and encase the seam you just sewed into another seam. Serging is just too bulky for such a delicate layer.
Here is the massive skirt fabric I need to work with.
Sewing the side seams to the outer layer of the skirt wrong sides together.
Trim the seam REALLY tiny. We are going to flip the material and encase this seam in a new seam.
Flipping the fabric and pressing the seam flat.
Sewing the final seam (encasing the old one).
Moving Right Along To Something Else
Rachel is going to try on the shell pieces to the dress. As you can see the skirt is simply pinned to the bodice right now.
The back is pinned all the way up too. I really need to measure the straps.
The bodice is just the outer shell from my last post. Once I get the lining with the boning in it, it will sit just perfectly. Rachel saw this dress that she loved with the design element of the thin straps. There is one in the front that turns into three straps across the back. I had the idea to find (I didn’t even know if it existed and it did!) round elastic so that she would feel secure and comfortable at the same time. This is just the initial elastic to get a rough measurement. It will later be covered with her main shiny fabric.
That’s going to look really cool in the back.
The next thing I need to work on before I can sew the lining/boning in is the draping on the bodice. I draped half of the bodice which I am going to hand sew into place before I drape the second side. You can be reminded of the bodice draping from my amazing sketch. Rosemary commented that she loved the ruffles to which Rachel snorted. I don’t think she’s a ruffle type of gal. Just a guess.
Close-up of the draping on the bodice.
And here she is all pinned together. Boy I have a lot of work to do!!!! More later.
Love, Rachel
