More on the dress

Choengsam dress
I have pictures of the Cheongsam dress! I'll start with the top of the dress. The dress form is leaning, due to an old injury. The side to the left of the picture opens and will be closed with snaps. The zipper is already applied.

The pink bias for the trim is cut 1" wide and applied first. the print bias is cut 2" wide and applied second, tracing the previous stitching (yes, upside down so you can see the stitching). This trim is not included in the pattern, but instructions are available online.

I then pressed everything toward the cut, trimmed edge ( trimmed to about 1/8 ") . It gets folded to the back side and hand stitched from this point.

An invisible zipper is inserted on the right side below the trim opening. I am using a factory made dress as a sample, although some of the details are different. I bound the bottom of the zipper with fabric, although I will have to redo it so it is more straight.

The same trim will be applied to the leg slits after I make sure the hips fit. An a-line skirt does not work with this style.

Part of the top usually closes with self fabric frogs. On this dress, there will be fabric flowers instead.

Public Art
What has attacked the parking meters in my town? It looks like a mad crocheter. Actually it's a group effort by an arts organization, occuring in a number of business areas. Each color is crocheted separately with a large hook, large yarn, and an open stitch. They are they sewn together and sewn onto the parking meters. In this installation, they go for about 3 short blocks and there are at least 20 decorated meters covering both sides of the street.

I hope it makes the drivers feel better about donating $.25 to park for 1/2 hour. Our police force is quite diligent about enforcement. This is a busy street, so the photos were taken early Sunday morning.

I finished another pair of socks for my big foot Son in Law, who will be in town in 2 weeks. His birthday was about a week ago. No good pictures until I figure out what I'm doing with the pattern. The leg is a slip stitch stripe pattern, which stretched the main color yarn to cover size 14 feet. Main color is Meilenweit tweed at 420 plus yards/100 gms.

It's Rescue the Garment Week

Last post I wrote about my black linen jacket ease problem. It's been a week of "rescue this garment". Upsize a bridesmaid dress by 6" in the bust. I used fabric from the hem. Each inserted piece had a seam in the middle. Now it fits! The customer is happy! I still need to finish the hem and shorten the straps a little.

A bride and her mom brought in a Hong Kong Cheongsam dress started by bride's sister. Sister has left town and the dress has a few problems besides finishing. This is a Folkwear pattern. It was sloppily sewn and made to fit with 2" seams. I disassembled the dress and recut the front piece, using the original front and making it a size smaller. The back will take new fabric. The neckline was cut too big and uneven. Bride is buying more fabric for delivery tomorrow.

The front piece now has darts that are evenly spaced and bias trim on the top edge. The first trim is cut 1" wide, pressed with a fold, and applied with the fold on the seam line. The trim is opened, sewn on the fold line, and folded again toward the edge of the fabric. The second bias strip is cut 2" wide, folded in half, and sewn with the edges even with trim #1. This sewing is 1/16" closer to the edge of the garment. Seams are trimmed near the stitching and trim #2 is hand stitched to the back, covering all raw edges. No pictures today, but I have more trim to sew in the next day or so.

Today I got to rescue a bridesmaid. She's 6 mo pregnant and lives elsewhere. Mom made her a dress to wear to a wedding tomorrow. The top of the dress is tooooo small. 6" too small. At least there was fabric left from the construction. Two hours later, the dress zips. It isn't perfect, but her sister c ould see where I had added the pieces.

My knitting guild had a picnic on Sunday. Weather was iffy and attendance was low, but we had a good time. I could show pictures of people eating and stuff, but I won't. Nora was spinning lace weight cashmere. She started indoors before lunch. The deck had some nice shade, but wasn't very warm this day. Work moved poolside. No One went swimming this day. It's a great location, a house and pool on about 5 acres, owned by one of our members.

I worked on a stealth project for Christmas and got a lot done. This is a project that I work on every day off. Socks are my take along project for most occasions. I started knitting a pair for each birthday. I'm now a little behind, becuase of lots of July birthdays. There are no sock birthdays in August and I have one September pair done. Wish me luck and fast knitting.