What happens when an unavoidable interruption takes you away from the depths of a sewing project for more than a couple weeks of time? Well, if you are me, you forget exactly where you were in the process. And, when you finally get back to work on it, you assume, incorrectly, certain fitting steps have already happened. Recipe for disaster? Well, not quite that bad, because this dress can be saved. It is just going to take some time.
The dress in question is the one for which I used this colorful floral silk.
Although I was so certain in May I would finish this dress before we departed our home on the East Coast (USA) for our Summer home in Wyoming, it did not happen. So I brought it with me to finish. When I finally picked it up again, I needed to reacquaint myself with all the steps yet to be completed. I had the hand-picked lapped zipper sewn and the sleeves inserted.
I love a hand-picked lapped zipper…
I was working on the narrow ruffle I had decided to add to the V-neck edge. I consider this to be the focal point of the dress (in addition to the fabric).
I used the same vintage pattern for this dress as I did for a blue silk dress late in 2019. This fabric, to me, was begging for a narrow neck ruffle.
As luck would have it, the most recent issue of Threads Magazine included an article by Susan Khalje on Couture Gathering. Now, I have done a lot of gathering of fabric in my life, but this article is illuminating in all the tips it offers for an excellent result. It could not have been more timely. As it turns out, there is lot more to gathering than I ever considered.
Among the concepts covered in the article are: gathering ratio, fabric grain, underlining, stitch length, preparation of the piece to be ruffled, forming the gathers and attaching the gathered fabric to the body of the item. As with so much of couture sewing, each step builds on the one before it.
Three of the tips in the article, so helpful to me in completing this detail, were: 1) cutting the piece to be gathered much wider than I would have thought was necessary. This gives one much more control than with a narrower strip. 2) using three lines of gathering rather than the customary two, and 3) once the gathers are formed, using an iron to set them in place, stopping just short of pressing the ruffle.
I decided on a 5/8″ wide ruffle. I cut my piece to be gathered 5″ wide, folded to 2.5″. I used three rows of gathering stitches.
For those of you with subscriptions to Threads Magazine, I highly recommend this Essential Techniques article. It has forever changed the way I will do gathering/ruffles. And although not all features in Threads are as useful, it is offerings like this which make me a fan of this sewing magazine. (These are my opinions; I have no relationship with Threads.)
Well, back to where I left off. After picking up work on this dress again, I proceeded to go through all the steps necessary to complete it. When I thought this dress was finally finished, I put it on to take pictures, and to my surprise, it did not fit correctly. It pulls across the bust and forms drag lines on the V-neck. Ugh.
The pulling across the bust and at the V-neck is clearly noticeable in this photo.
I can only guess I thought I had tried it on for fit after the zipper was basted, but I must not have done that. Unknowingly, I proceeded with the finishing of the interior – the facing of the V-neck, the hem, and the insertion of a green crepe de chine lining.
Normally with couture sewing, neck facings are eliminated and the lining is brought right up to the neck edge and then understitched to secure it. However, with a V-neck, a facing is necessary. I then cut the lining about 3/4″ below the neck edge and fell-stitched it into place.
I believe removing the zipper and taking some of the center back seam allowance to add to the width of the back will correct this glaring mis-fit. This is not a dress which I will have occasion to wear this summer – so do I dig in and make the corrections now, or do I wait? I have quite a bit in my summer sewing queue, and perhaps a tried and true project like a blouse will put me in a better frame of mind. Regardless, this “unfinished business” will one day be finished, hopefully successfully.
fiftydresses 