Well, I managed to complete a dress in time for the first challenge.  Despite my seams being all gnarly due to some issue with my tension.

Go me!

Don’t look at the seams too close!

The dress is supposed to be a remix of this dress.

While the Princess told me earlier this week that she didn’t like dresses, I was hopeful that if it had horses on it she would wear it.    I met with SUCCESS, as she was quite thrilled to wear the horses with the wagons and boots and all manner of Southwestern designs.  I have had this fabric for many years and never knew quite what to make with it.  I think this fabric worked quite well for the design.

It is a bright, fun dress, so how could she not like this??

It is more of a summer dress, so we had to warmify it for winter.  It is COLD here!  We just put on a plain white shirt, white tights and some fur-trimmed red boots to make do for winter time.  Now she wants more horsie wear.  I shall have to see what I have in my stash to accomidate her wishes. 🙂

No fabric buying…I am on a diet.

This may be more painful to me than an actual diet!

Considering what my sewing machine repair is going to cost, I really can’t buy any fabric for a few months. Dang pins.  PSA: Don’t sew over your pins or they can break into the machine and/or shoot towards your eyeball.

True story.

Anyways…

I have a few issues with the bodice construction on the tutorial.  Not because it is wrong, but because there is an easier and less fussy way to make it.  I have seen many tutorials online that have similar construction where they leave the shoulder seams last.  The shoulder seams end up being fussy, a pain to put together and not quite as neat.

It is much easier and less fussy to attach the shoulder seams first, and do the side seams last.  In this method you end up pulling the fabric through the shoulder seams to get it right side out.  This only works if the back or the front is split, though.  I did it this way in my tutorial and pattern for this 5T cross front dress.  Pictures showing it are in that tutorial, but I will walk through the steps below.

Basically…

1. Sew up the shoulder seams on the exterior and interior pieces.  Iron flat.
2. Lay them together, right sides facing.
3. Sew the armholes and neckline.
4. Take the interior piece on the split back and pull it through the shoulder seam on each side.
5. Iron it all nice and flat
6. Put the side seams together and stitch them up.
7. Attach the skirt to just the outside of the bodice after gathering it up.  You can also do this reverse…attach the skirt to the inside piece.  Whatever floats your boat. 🙂
8. Iron the hem on the bottom of the inside piece and put it over the seam on the inside.  This encloses the gathered seam that can be itchy to little ones at their waist.  I try to enclose all the seams I can, so it is more comfortable to them.
9. Pin the inside piece and topstitch on the outside.  Check to make sure you are grabbing the edges on the inside.  I make sure I have enough overlap that it won’t be an issue.  Also…if you are putting in a zipper, leave a few inches of topstitching off the side so you can enclose the zipper in the seams.  You can finish that edge once the zipper is in.
10. Put the zipper in between the seams of the outside and inside of the bodice.  I also left a good 6 inches open on the skirt for the zipper to go down.  You can use Wonder Tape to help keep the zipper in place.  It is pretty helpful.
11. Once the zipper is in on both sides, go across the bottom a few times and trim the zipper on the inside.
12. Hem the skirt.
13. Done!

** I used a zipper, as opposed to buttons.  It is more comfortable to wear without a bunch of buttons along the back.  Not quite as cute, but I have learned to pick my battles with the girl.  She doesn’t like leaning her back into buttons, and I can understand how they can be a little uncomfortable.

The trick I like to use for zipper construction is Wonder Tape.  It keeps everything in it’s place while you are sewing it up.   It looks neater in the end, and is a lot easier to sew.

**The yokes are overlays on the top, as is the horse appliques and concho strip from the main fabric.  I used Heat n’ Bond on the backside of the horse fabric, cut them out and ironed onto the bodice.  I used a zigzag stitch around the edges.

My seams are not that great, due to my sewing machine needing servicing.  That is where it is at right now, so hopefully he can get it fixed so I can participate for next week’s them of stripes and dots.  We shall see!

I took it in and he looked at it, and noted that my needle plate was all bent.  Perhaps from going over one two many pins??  I will need to replace that and then he’s going to clean and service it.  I get that done at least once every two years, but I do take the needle plate off and clean out the insides every so often.

I asked, “How long??”

He said, “About a week and a half.”

“Really??”  Consternation

“Well, if you call me on Monday and tell me, ‘Kurt, I really need my machine’.  I can probably get it to you Tuesday or Wednesday.”

Guess I will be calling Kurt on Monday!