Embroidered Linen Dress: Tie Construction

I decided on "beetroot" charmeuse from Mood for the tie. Can I tell you? I am in love with this fabric. I want to have one of everything in it. I want to live in it. This is definitely my color this year. It really makes the blue of my eyes pop and I just love wearing it.

The pattern called for the ties to be cut on the lengthwise grain, but I wasn't interested in buying 2 yards of silk just for a tie around my waist. So I cut ripped it on the cross grain instead. For the longer tie, this meant that I needed to splice two lengths together. I had done this once before on an improvised tie for a maternity top. I used my quilting ruler to draw a 45% angle on the intersection of two lengths pinned perpendicular to each other.

Then I stitched on that line. I was pretty pleased with my accuracy!

When turned to the right side and pressed, it makes one continuous length with a strong angled seam.

I trimmed and pinked seams and trimmed the corners down tight.

I sewed the seam allowances of the join down into the seam allowance of the tube. I decided it would make the join seam stronger. Then I used a fancy tube turner tool to flip the tubes right-side-out.

There is a hollow tube that goes inside the tube, all the way to the stitched end. Then there is a stick that fits inside the tub that is used to start the turn into the tube.

I am very pleased with how these ties look, however, I do have some pressing marks... You can see it at the top of the tie in the picture above. the pinked edge of the seam allowances is showing through. I thought pinking the seams might help to blend the seam allowance line, since it would be at different lengths. I think next time I would use some sort of interfacing. Also, I wasn't sure how to apply the pressinatrix's pressing rules on a tube, and didn't look for help on the internet until I had already trimmed the seam allowances. So my seams aren't as perfectly pressed as they could be. Next time I will press the seam allowances back before I turn the tubes.

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Frivolous photo: My husband and I packed the kids off to go camping in the mountains not too far from home a couple of weekends ago. It was in a wonderfully wooded area. I could have moved in. The kids were fabulous! The biggest challenge with camping in the mountains near Denver is that the lows will be in the 40s even at the height of summer. In the morning, we had to get under a blanket to stay warm.

In other sewing news, I am close to having my medieval dress and my cloak done. The cloak just needs a hem and the medieval dress only has the trim left to add (and an underdress to sew up). Seems too close to the finish line to share photos...

Plum Cloak: Bound Seam Allowance

I sewed the next lining seam this weekend. I had picked up some seam binding at JoAnn's, and I think that worked much better.

The seams didn't line up very well between the two pieces. When I lined up the seam notches there was a ton of extra fabric towards the shoulder on one piece and extra fabric towards the hem on the other. I decided to skip matching notches and just lined up the two pieces as best I could. I compared the pattern pieces, to ensure that I didn't notch something incorrectly. I'm reasonably sure the cut pieces distorted, which probably contributed to the problem. I was a little dismayed to see that the pieces appeared distorted even where I had stay-stitched.

I used my 1/4" seam foot to sew on the seam binding, and I think it worked very well.

This seam looks way cleaner, and I think it hangs a bit better than the overstitched seam. I'm reluctant to press the seam again now that the binding is in place, because of fears of pressing ridges into the fabric. This method took forever though. Partly because of the confoundation of the mis-matching seams, partly because I had to sew the entire length five times and press ~8.

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Frivolous photo: I took the boys for a hike last weekend at about 7,300 feet. There was around 6 inches of snow for most of the hike. We made it a short hike, but it was glorious!

Plum Cloak: More (Slow) Lining Progress

I've had pretty good luck working with the slippery lining fabric. This is my first time working with a slippery for more than a little, crafty project. I cut the fabric in a double layer, sandwiched between two layers of tissue paper. I took a ton of time trying to ensure the two layers of fabric were perfectly squared and flat. In the photos I took, I can see that there are a couple of spots that aren't completely flat. I eventually got a little fatigued on the whole thing and decided to just go for cutting it.

I sewed two pieces of the lining together over the weekend. I stay-stitched the neckline and shoulder area per the instructions. Then I stitched the seam with my walking foot. After careful pressing, I was so pleased with the results! I didn't bother trying to line up the dots, and I'm not at all bothered by that so far.

But then I took the seam back to the sewing machine and sewed an overcast stitch to protect the seam allowances. It really rippled the seam allowances and made the seam look a lot more messy. Bah!

The seam from the right side doesn't look too bad. There's some wobbliness that wasn't there before. There are some water spots visible here (did I already talk about water spots?). They're not at all noticable except when the fabric is laid completely flat in shiny light. I might try to pull them out at some point, or just live with them. I dunno.

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Frivolous photo: A quick pic of my oldest being freaking adorable. Which is, of course, his natural state of being.