Such Treasures

I’m finally able to say that I have a pattern drafting success — an A-line jumper for Haniya which I began yesterday afternoon. Haniya was shocked this morning to find that her dress was almost done because when she went to bed yesterday, we’d only had a fitting of the jumper made out of an old sheet. I had stayed up and constructed all but the zipper and the hem last night, and finished those this morning.

The fabric I found at a thrift store. It is linen, and ironically, was a much darker reddish/coral when I brought it home. I believe someone dyed it and wasn’t happy with the result because when I washed it, gobs and gobs of red dye washed out. After a few washings, we are down to the gorgeous red-coral you see. It has a bit of an acid-wash look to it, too, and I like that.

I completed the main construction of the dress using my serger. I used the double 3mm coverstitch on my stand-alone CS machine to top-stitch (or faux flat fell seam) all the the side seams, the shoulder seams and the back seam below the zipper.

This picture shows the top-stitching on the shoulder seams, as well as the neckline and armhole bindings applied with a double coverstitch. Since I didn’t have a matching thread, I chose the dark grey you see in the pictures for all the top-stitching.

I had the most trouble with the zipper. I’ve successfully avoided them for years. I still don’t know how to put the zipper in right on this dress because of the coverstitched binding I used to finish the neckline. The back is left open where the zipper goes. As far as I know, the binder attachment only allows for binding to be applied flat and then sewed into a seam. So I applied it flat and then added the zipper on top of it to finish the ends of the binding. I hope there is another way; I will think on it.

Here’s the bottom hem (horizontal seaming) where it meets a top-stitched side seam (vertical seaming).

Haniya is in love with her dress and she thinks it looks store-bought. Well, maybe — except for that darned zipper! I took the time and redid everything that didn’t turn out just right. It was good practice for me. I’ve often done things the fast way and let finer points slide. I’m determined not to do that anymore, if I can help it. I really want to put out top-notch garments and projects.