Monday, October 6, 2008

This time I mean business

We all know there are easy ways to do things (which still generally work), and then there are the long, drawn-out, absolutely right ways to do them. That's how I went about Vogue 8280, the Galaxy dress knockoff.

I cut the dress out on Thursday night. Over the weekend, I thread-traced all the pattern markings onto the fabric, and cut out the lining fabric.

Tonight, after spending way too much of the weekend doing other things (including seeing Bruce Springsteen perform at a voter registration rally on the Parkway, so not all bad), I finally got to putting the dress together. First I hand-basted the darts, checked the fit, and then sewed and pressed them. Then I did the linings and attached the bodice to its lining. I was really impressed with how pretty the bodice piece was even before I attached the flanges. Good darts are a beautiful thing.

The flanges were cut on the bias, and attached at the shoulder seams to the back pieces. The back and its lining were sewn together, and then the flanges were pinned, basted and sewn to the front. Vogue lost me there for a while - their instructions had me confused to the point where I was yearning for BWOF's brand of incomprehensibility - and then the fog cleared and I put the lining and bodice right sides together and got the underarm seam done.

All this took way longer than expected, so when I knocked off the bodice was on Evelyn, fronts and backs and flanges sewn, just not attached to each other. But tomorrow is another day, right?

And on a different note, thanks much to Cennetta, who nominated me for a Brillant Weblog Premio - 2008 award. Part of the rules is that I have to pass this on to 6-10 other bloggers, so I'm going to finish this off in a few days when I'm able to find 6-10 other bloggers who haven't already been given this award. In the meantime, thanks again, Cennetta - it means a lot that people read my meanderings on sewing, cats, my old house, and everything else that wanders into my head.


9 comments:

luckylibbet said...

There's something better than Bruce? Looking good so far!

Anonymous said...

oooh, can't wait to see your Galaxy dress! Good luck...

cidell said...

me likey!

Lisette M said...

It's coming along great!

Gretchen the Household Deity said...

It's gorgeous so far!

Little Hunting Creek said...

It looks great so far. It's kind of nice to do stuff the slow way sometimes.

-E said...

you know I had to tag you. I feel so "in" now :)

Kitty Couture said...

Talk about synchronisation!
I cut this dress out over the weekend; since then, though, a tendinitis in my left hand has prevented me from sewing (hmm, I'm not really supposed to be typing either). Now I can't wait to get the use of my hand back so I can catch up on you!

Yours is going to look beautiful in this plaid.

Cennetta said...

I'm making this dress too! Great progress on your dress.