Hey Look at ME! I've got Sleeves

So what ever happened with the dress?

Well two weeks ago, (the Saturday before Halloween), I had a 5 hour sewing session and felt really good with the progress I made. These were the steps in my head when I started Saturday Morning:

1. Sew together bodice
2. Sew together lining
3. Sew lining and bodice together
   
4. Put together sleeves with flounces
5. Sew sleeves to bodice
6. Gather and sew skirt to bodice
7. Attach zipper (Mom's department - I don't know how to sew hidden zippers, not yet at least)
   
8. Sew/Attach ribbon decoration to dress
   
9. Measure and sew hem.
   

My aim was to get to step five, hey it would be really great to have the skirt attached by the end of Saturday. That would only leave steps 7-9, which could so be done by Thursday, Saturday at the very latest. I even figured one hour for the bodice, one hour for the lining, and 2 hours for the sleeves, leaving about 2 hours for the skirt. Well that sounds good in theory. And it did work out that way, sort of.

I got the bodice sewn together. The lace on the center panel was my idea. The pattern calls for ribbons, to make bows. In the original discussion of this, we decided .... well I'm not entirely sure what we decided, because as I looked at it further and further, the ribbon step needed to be done before the bodice was shown together, and we were thinking it would be done at the end with the other ribbon decoration.

Honestly I didn't want to a) make ribbon from the fabric or b) go to the store and try to decide which ribbon to choose. When I'm at this kind of a crossroads, I usually do a lot of staring at the fabric and the pattern and whatever supplies I might have on had and then back to the fabric. Yes, sometimes this involves chewing nails, and running fingers through my hair. Which makes this a good spot to make sewing confession number 2:

When I sew I play music. And the music of choice is classical, preferably opera. I've tried county/rock/ etc, but it doesn't work for me. That type of music actually makes me more irritated and shuts the brain down. So it's classical and what's really great is if there are lyrics involved, (yes I sing). So most of the time I have The Marriage of Figaro playing loudly, but for some reason I couldn't find it so I had to settle for Julia Andrews and her singing of some famous musicals and the Messiah. Both were good, although after a week of the musicals, I had such phrases like "just you wait Henry Higgins, just you wait" repeating over and over in my head. I really need to find Figaro.

The music really helps me focus and ignore everything but the task at hand while opening me up to creative inspiration. And honestly it worked, cause I'm really liking how the lace looks and think it will really pull together the dress. I believe when the skirt is gathered and attached to the dress, the panels will line up and look so awesome.

So here is the finished bodice.

And the finished skirt with the lining on top to the side.

At this point I determined step 3 - sew lining to the bodice was dumb. I understand the pattern's reasoning but I think I know better. Of course I won't really know if I know better until the end. I just think the lining should not be done until the sleeves are attached, skirt attached and zipper is in. This way, the lining will hid all the unfinished seams (including zipper, sleeves, and skirt) and make it really nice and finished. The pattern figures you can just hold the lining out of the way when you sew the zipper or skirt on. And of course I beg to differ.

Now sleeves - that's where my nice little time schedule got off. The sleeves took about three hours and that was just to get them assembled. It was the lace flounces that ate up the time, of course here again was where I ignored the pattern's instructions and I was right to. For the lace hem, I sewed a thin white ribbon along the edge, then I used French seams instead of regular seams. French seams look so awesome, and with the transparency of lace, they hide the raw edges really well. Now there are two flounces per sleeve and the instructions say to gather them separately. I don't think so! Can you image the swearing that would have come from such a task? I put the two together and treated it as one. Three rows of gathering stitches (instead of 6), gathering once (instead of twice) and sewing once (instead of twice). Repeat for second sleeve.
Oh so nice and so much better. Don't they look awesome?

Six hours sewing, with three hours on those sleeves and I still had to attach them to the bodice, I was beat. So I called it quits for the day.

Well it seems it was quits for the next two weeks, cause that's where those sleeves sat till last night. I do have good reasons, at least for not doing anything last week, it was a headache week, meaning headaches everyday. So a rest was needed.

But last night I finally sat down and attached those sleeves to the bodice.
Now .... doesn't the bodice look awesome?

I can't wait to see how the skirt looks when it's finally attached. I can't say how soon, cause the skirt has 5 seams that need to be finished. If they aren't finished, the fabric will ravel like crazy. I don't have to worry about the seams on the bodice, cause it's lined, but the skirt isn't. I would love to serge them, but the serger is at the repair shop. So I either wait for the serger or I use another method. Makes me wish I had thought of French seams before I had sewn the skirt together. Oh well I'll figure something out.

Now you're up-to-date on where I'm at with the dress. Sorry for the long post, but what can I say, I love this stuff!!!