Silk Dress - Part 4

Final Post

I think this is the last question of the day for a while! Shorty wanted to know where I get the Burda World of Fashion magazines. Where you get them may depend on where you live. In the States, they're harder to find than if you live in Europe. If you live in a really big city (like NYC) you might be able to find them on the newsstands/bookstore magazine sections. If you live out in the sticks, like I do, you might be able to get them on ebay or better yet, do what I do, and get a subscription. I get mine through GLPNews, a company that specializes in importing German printed media - newspapers and magazines. To order your own subscription, go here.

Regarding that needle I showed you in yesterday's Q/A, I usually buy mine at Jo-Ann's in a pack of 10 or so. They are labeled either "self-threading", "easy threading" or "calyx eye" needles. They are very inexpensive and can be a big help in pulling even the smallest bit of thread through to the wrong side.

Now for the dress, front and back - my jr. photographers have gone to the beach with their grandparents for the day, so the dress had to go on the dressform. I couldn't persuade the cats to take a couple of photos.

As far as the finishing details, I ended up doing a little more handwork than I had anticipated. I anticipated some - this is a silk dress after all, and I wanted it to be really nice. If the style were really trendy and the fabric cheap quality, maybe I wouldn't invest the time, but I do plan on wearing this more than one summer. Anyway, the seam allowances on the bust seams were flopping around a bit and not staying put even after ironing, so I catch stitched them to the underlining only. That, I suppose, is another advantage of underlining.

I then fell stitched the remainder of the lining in place and prick stitched the entire top edge. I also remembered to put in the dress hangers before putting in the lining. I didn't remember to put them in before I stitched the side seams of the lining, though! Thankfully, that was an easy fix.

The hems are machine stitched. At first I was going to end the skirt hem at the bottom of that very wide border. Once I got it done, I didn't like it. That was a major problem, because the hem was a narrow turned-twice 1/4" hem, so I only had 1/2" of fabric to work with. I ended up cutting floral bands and attaching them with a french seam and then hemming those. I'm glad I had extra fabric and next time I'm definitely taking a closer look before I hem! You can't really tell by looking at it, because I lined everything up very carefully. Most people wouldn't notice anyway. It does bug me a bit, because it shouldn't be there to begin with, but I supposed it's just another lesson learned.

Parting Shot: My buddy, Max. He decided to come soak up the sunshine and take a nap while I was working in the studio.