Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Halloween

I'm slightly behind on this post, considering this is the week of Thanksgiving.

I made Little N's costume this year, perhaps I should use that as the excuse for not posting since August considering I've been sewing since August. Little N wanted to be a purple and pink princess. These are, of course, the only color options she would consider and the brighter the better.



I had a lot of fun sewing this. I had to research how to deal with the thin fabric that is the top of the skirt. The actual pattern called for tulle, but Little N picked out this bright purple and pink sheer fabric with stars on it. She was in love and there was no convincing her otherwise. It took me about a month of sample swatch sewing to finally figure out the best option for the hem and the interior seams. The seams show through, meaning you had to be careful in how you dealt with them. I ended up using a princess seam for the interior seams. The hem was a little harder to deal with. I first marked the 16 feet of fabric with a line to determine the edge. Then sewed just next to the line. After that, I trimmed the edge as close to the seam as possible, trimming off the pen line. Then folded the hem up and into itself, ironing the edge into a rolled hem. Another seam all the way around almost at the fold and the hem was finally done. The rest of the dress followed the pattern. I did have to add seams on the topskirt where the zipper opening was, where the pattern called for no seam on a tulle.

Little N is quite a slave driver, watching me sew and commenting on my progress as the gown came along.

"But, Mommy, you haven't finished my dress," was always the statement after she told me good morning and I had spent the evening before staying up way to late sewing. She was thrilled when it was done, as was I.

All in all, this is the most complex item I've made and I've had to put the sewing machine away for a bit. I'm a little crafted-out for now.

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