Sewing Project: Vintage Dress update 2

Well, the Easter weekend is now behind us - time for a vintage sewing project status update.

Here's the summary:

I got a lot done.

I did not finish the dress.

I had two Very Unsettling Incidents involving zippers.

* sigh *

Here's the lowdown, with photos...

Overall things are going really well. The pieces are coming together nicely and, barring one rather odd sleeve section, all my notches are matching up as I'm sewing. This almost never happens to me, so it's quite exciting to have the pieces just 'fit together' as they should.

The front of the dress is made up of long panels -
different to the usual bodice + skirt arrangement

Side view

Bias binding trim sewn in place, and a line of yellow thread
above marking where more trim needs to go

It's sitting a little oddly so I decided to top-stitch in place.

There... that's much better!

Belt sections constructed. I didn't have quite enough material
so they are 1.5 inches shorter than they're supposed to be.

I've got most of the main sections sewn together, barring the front panel. I've got the sleeves constructed and one actually attached to the bodice.

Initially I was concerned that the dress might come up too small. I'm a 34-28-38 and most patterns for a 34 bust assume a smaller waist and hip size, so that if I make a dress to fit a 34 bust it's really tight in the waist. I figured a vintage pattern might be even worse as it might assume that a) I have a smaller waist, and b) I wear a corset regularly.

However, as the pieces are going together it looks like the opposite could be true - so far the dress seems a little too roomy, especially around the bodice, where it looks a little droopy. This could just be the style though - the belt will allow me to cinch the waist tight and perhaps the upper bodice is meant to be 'blousey'. We'll see.

Side seams pinned in place

There seems to be a heck of a lot of 'slop' in the underarm/bust area.

Hopefully this will work out okay. (Center panel is just pinned in place)

Sleeves constructed from two panels with trim at the seam.

Sewing the sleeve seam together

The first time my notches and fabric length didn't add up -

the hem was out by half an inch or more!

Two sleeves constructed and ready to attach.

Note the trim on the sleeve hem is slightly wider on one than the other. Oops.

I've got one sleeve in and it went in okay, although it too looks a little droopy. It's got lots of poofy gathers which look swell if you hold it up, but just droop down otherwise. I may need to add a stiffener to add shape when it's done. The proof will be in the final trying-on after the other seams are in place.

Bodice trim and one sleeve in place

Awesome retro sleeve!

But it may need help staying aloft on its own. It looks a little deflated!

All was going swimmingly until it came time to put in the zippers. There are two, and I managed to stuff up both of them somewhat.

Zipper 1 goes in the left side seam. I managed to get it in mostly okay but I did a dumb thing regarding the adjoining belt. The nifty fabric belt needed to be sewn into the same seam as the zipper, but, with a lack of any clear directions to follow and a lack of forethought, I sewed the belt onto the wrong side, so that when the seam was finished if you tied the belt it pulled on the seam and exposed the zipper in a gapey, not-very-professional-looking way.

Whoops.

So I unpicked that section to fix it, and, in the process of unpicking I did the unimaginable and made a small rip in the fabric with the unpicker. DRAT!

I decided to Keep Calm and Carry On however, and moved the belt to the other side and re-sewed, so now the belt neatly covers the zipper seam instead of pulling at it. Hoorah! I then mended the rip with a bit of random looking yet effective sewing. Mend and make do!

The fixed up seam with the belt attached to the front of the dress so that it covers over the seam when tied. I initially had it attached to the other side of the opening, where it pulled at the seam and exposed the otherwise invisible zipper. Silly me!

A bit of inexpert mending of a small rip above the zipper stop

It would have been nice to have that extra 1.5 inches

of length on the belt, but it still makes a nice bow.

So, Zipper Number 2 goes in at the neckline (from the neckline to the shoulder blades). The directions say to 'slash' (cut) the fabric along the line marked and then clip the end diagonally.

Stupidly, I went ahead without really thinking this through and made the diagonal cuts WAY too big (5/8 inch, if you must know). I forgot that this is a zip set into a slash and not a seam, so the usual seam allowance rules don't apply.

Essentially what I did was make a cut so wide that when you folded it back you had a massive inch-wide hole in the fabric where a narrow slit should be.

Double whoops.

In my defense, I've never done a zipper set into a slash before, only along seams, and I really have no idea what I'm doing.

A perusal through some sewing books and the internet gave me a plan of action involving a piece of fabric to use as facing. I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say I think I've managed to salvage the back zip, mostly. I say mostly because I was left with the huge diagonal cuts in the fabric and the only way I could think to fix them was to sew the crap out of them on zig zag. I'm not proud of the results. It looks crap. But there you go. Lesson learned.

Zipper pinned into place after fandangling around to get a narrower gap
(previously the gap where the zipper is visible was over an inch wide - ha ha ha oopsie)

Highly Inexpert Mending of Stupid Mistake

So, as of right now I still need to sew in the back zip (hopefully without incident!), then attach the second sleeve, hem and trim the neckline and front panels and attach the remaining centre front panel. Oh, and hem the skirt.

There's a dress-up Big Band night tomorrrow night - I wonder if the dress will be ready in time?