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.  

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!

Hobbled

No, unfortunately not the skirt. Rather my serger has been hobbled…maimed….destroyed…by me.

Over the long Thanksgiving weekend of sewing non-stop for hours on end, a pin dropped into the serger and when I went to use it snapped off one of the burrs. Yikes!!! No more serger. I now have to figure our repairs. This all happened last Friday and since I had to finish the dress, it really isn’t until now that I have been able to stop and contemplate this turn of events.

I did not always have a serger. It was a Christmas present a few years back. However, now I cannot imagine sewing without it for edge finishing. Truth been known, I am deadly afraid of the blades and have only used the blades on a few occasions…..make that well less than 10 occasions. The upper blade is always disengaged. It is scary.

With that being said, I use my serger on everything I sew now.

This is impacting what I sew in December. My local Janome repair place is not close by and I can only take in my machine on Saturdays. Every piece of material I am picking up I am quickly putting back down for fear of shredding while sewing.

Bah…..I am victim of technology.