Summer is Here!!

It's the longest day of the year, the start of summer, the summer solstice.

My favorite time of year.  I love summer and everything that goes with it: the heat, going to the beach, summer BBQs, watching fireworks and many more things.  What special things do you like about summer?

One thing I can’t do, and it makes me sad, is eat ice cream.  I get terrible migraines. 

For the first day of summer, I always go out and get a milkshake.  I have to endure the migraine but I get my desire of ice cream and ice cream related items out of my system.

This is my fabric for my new summer skirt! 

It is lightweight and flows so it is perfect for a summer skirt.  Will probably need to line it.  I have had it for years tucked into the stash.  It is a polyester chiffon which ravels like the dickens so serging is a must!

Alas, I just don’t see this fabric working with any of my vintage patterns, so I think I am going a more modern route with it.  It should be a quick make, I just need to cut, serge and sew.  Sounds simple enough…..

Water Circles

Front

Its done, its done!!!  YAY!  My first dress using a modern pattern and modern fabrics.

Whew…it was challenging.  I know some of you out there can knock out a dress like this in a couple of hours but not me.  It took a while and I am not at all confident with these techniques.

Front - full length
What is that bump?

That being said, it is definitely wearable!  Which is really a plus since I do like the fabric.  I plan to give it a test drive at an art gallery thing tonight. 

What I did…in case anyone out there would like to know.  All hems are done on the serger as a rolled hem.  The front lap was pick stitched closed so there will be no wardrobe malfunctions but the back was left as is.  It is fully lined in a flesh colored tricot.  I gathered the midriff in various spots and then sewed down some of the gathers to insure this lightweight knit actually stayed gathered.  It seams to have worked.  Not sure what the bulge in the pictures is…probably just bad styling.

Back view......same as
the front

I think I need another 1940s dress to relax with as next up in the queue.  

Serger Wars

Front.  I moved the overlap for
more coverage.

Back
A little plunging

I have am losing the battle with the serger.  I think this dress will be about 1/2 serger and 1/2 sewing machine.  I guess you need to start somewhere.  One shoulder I was able to gather beautifully on serger, the other not so much.  For the necklines, I have to admit I gave up and used the sewing machine.  I really did not think it would work well.  I have a problem with seam allowances on the serger but then I am terrified of using the knife and almost always have it disabled.  Really, you could lose a finger with the knife.

On to the midriff pieces …….

Breaking Needles

So, I had to get my serger out and ready to roll with this dress which will hereinafter be named the bubble dress cause the fabric looks like bubbles.  I inserted my stretch needles and started in on some scrap pieces of fabric.

Blammo…right needle breaks.  Ok, that is unusual.  My serger needles never break.  Re-thread, put in a new needle and away we go.  So far so good.

Change the stitch length to figure our how to gather using the serger….blammo…right needle breaks again.  No biggie….re-thread, put in a new needle and away we go.

Blammo…right needle breaks again.  Stop, do not re-tbread.  Do not insert new needle.  Stop now before injuries occur.

Any ideas what is going on with the serger?

Sewing Outside of My Comfort Zone

I have a serger and I would like to make something using my serger.  A lot of the blogs I read have sewists who use their sergers to construct garments.  I only use it to finish seams.

Soooooo….for something completely different I am going to make a dress with t-shirt material (I have no idea what it is called….jersey? knit?) and I am going to try to use the serger to construct it.

Here is the fabric…..ooooohhh pretty.  My favorite colors, blue and brown.  It seems this is a remnant of a designer fabric.  Note the seam allowance notes.

You might ask what pattern?  Well I do not have patterns for knit materials so I am going to try and use Vogue 8182,, View B which I do have in a size which is too big for me.  When checking out pattern review for this pattern, a number of people made it in a knit and omitted the zipper.  So, I am going to try and do that!