Waiting For a Dress - Part 8

Almost Done!

I got the embellishment completely done last night and today I worked on getting the hem ready to finish. Tonight I'll finish up the hem, put in the label and show you the final result tomorrow!

The body of the dress has already had wavy stitching done in opal Superior Glitter thread and only needed beads and sequins to finish it. I just put pins in where I thought I wanted a line of snowflake sequins and beads and then stitched them on:
The hem is finished with a bias piping/facing. This is a technique I got from Threads #104, Dec./Jan 2003 , and I think is my most favorite finish and most used of everything I've ever read in Threads.

To make the piping, cut bias strips equal to 2x's the width you want the facing plus the amount of fabric it takes to go around the piping. Once you've stitched enough pieces together for the proper length, fold the strip in half so that it's now half the width you originally cut. Fold the raw edges around the piping cord and baste. Here's what it looks like from the right (on left) and wrong sides:

You then attach the piping to the item, the hem here, of course. I always place the folded edge at the edge of my fabric, stitch as close to the piping as possible and then trim the seam allowance. This is not quite the method proposed in the article, but it works for me. Make sure that you place the wrong side of the piping to the right side of the fabric!

After trimming, turn facing to the inside, and yes, you guess it: fell stitch folded edge in place.

Here's the hem from the right side and from the wrong side. Clean and neat, either side.

Parting Shot: I finally got a hollyhock bloom! I say finally because there's some sort of bug here that eats my hollyhocks and they never get a chance to grow properly. This is the first one I've had in 3 years. I planted the hollyhocks because my grandmother had them in her garden at her old house in Omaha, NE; so they remind me of her. This one's for you, grandma!