Thursday, March 15, 2012

Beware the Ides of March

Maybe when the soothsayer was warning Caesar of his impending doom, he could have also mentioned "Oh, and Sue, don't bother trying to sew that day," as well.
Exhibit A: sad mess of pink lining and green Joan dress.
Guess what, I don't know how to do lining, and having two of everything... in opposites ...has confused me. See, I'm not even making sense. Maybe I'm too literal when I look at the directions...or too stupid! I've consulted the sewing gods via my Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing, but I'm still not getting it. Time to walk away and try again this weekend, rather than foolishly trying to squeeze in some sewing at the end of a busy day.

Oh, and those buttons Joan has down the back of her dress? Not looking like I'll be making those happen on mine either. I'm just going to save the fabric-covered buttons plan for when I (finally) get to sew up a Sencha.

At this point I'm feeling more overwhelmed than inspired and have already stumbled into setting this dress up for a center back zip rather than a side zip (which would have allowed me to make a non-functional placket of buttons down the back). I'd considered just trying to make an extra large ...zipper-cover-flap-thing, that I could apply the buttons to, down the dress back, and use a hook&eye or a tiny snap to keep the flap secured once the zip was zipped, but....meh.

It seems like whenever I get excited enough to feel confident about a project, I forget that I don't have experience with certain techniques (see my first UFO, New Look 6587 - no big deal, it just has twelve buttons down the front...of course that'd be the perfect project to try my had at buttonholes for the first time, right? Wrong. It was promptly abandoned.) and then I get all discouraged when I can't figure them out instantly.

Blerg.

10 comments:

  1. Hey Sue! I can help you with the lining!
    I used a tutorial which was very helpful when I attempted my first lined dress.
    http://www.sewmelove.com/2011/10/my-bodice-with-lining.html

    -Basically, you construct the lining of the bodice exactly like the dress fabric.
    -You then face the right sides of the fabric together and pin the arm holes and neck hole.
    -You sew the armholes (armholes only, do not sew the side seams) and neck line of the lining and dress fabric together.

    You then pull the "backs" of the bodice out though the arm hole. You will need to trim you SA and clip curves, but dont do this until you kow you have sewn it correctly.

    This technique is called "bagging". You might be able to find more tutorials if your google bagging. The instructions in the patterns show a different way to line a bodice.

    After you reverse the bodice you sew the side seams. To sew the seams, you sew the sew the front and back lining together, then the dress fabric front and back bodice together. It's hard to explaing without pics, but if you need help, send me an email and i'll explain further (im at work right now )

    but definitely check out the tutorial!!
    xx

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    1. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Neeno! I'm definitely going to give this another look and try it this weekend. :)

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  2. Here, here! I'm right there with ya! Hope it's better tomorrow :)

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  3. Linings can be mind-boggling. I use this article from threads. http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/4971/a-shortcut-to-great-linings

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  4. I agree linings can be pretty confusing at times! I find it really helpful especially if I'm getting stressed over something like that to leave it alone for 10 mins, chill, have a cup of tea & come back to it with fresh eyes! Good Luck :)

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  5. Linings can be VERY confusing! Go slow, walk away when you feel your blood boiling. I'd post another tutorial, but the ones posted here are pretty good. Also: once you've mastered the lining, you will NEVER do facings ever again!

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    Replies
    1. completely agree! I can never go back to unlined dresses ever again! Once you do it once, it's easy :)

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  6. All excellent advice! Rest assured you'll get it, and it'll be so worth the trip!

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  7. I'm with ya Sue, I find linings pretty confusing too. I'm actually glad you posted this as the lovely people in your comments have directed me to some very useful tutorials!

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