Summer Solstice Peacock Garden Finale-ish

Hello, It is Sunday the 16th and I promised that I would give an update on the past 2 weeks today.  The trouble is remembering every that I had done.

As mentioned in my previous post I wanted to get my Peacock Garden dress completed for my Birthday celebration with my friend Samantha.  Samantha and I both have July birthdays so we have a girls day to celebrate.  I was fully aware that it would be a close call to complete it in time, which was why I skipped last week.  It is also the reason why I did not take a many pictures in the past 2 weeks.  I was able to wear it yesterday.

Final Mock-Up

On July 4th when many were outside celebrating the day, I was inside working on what I hoped to be my final mock-up of the dress while binge watching Ronin Warriors.  It was my final mock-up.  I completed it within a few hours before walking up to see the local fireworks.  I will admit that I was rather tempted to wear to the show but I decided against it.

With my personalized pattern pieces (remember I use a light-board and cheap Jumbo Pad paper to copy the originals so that the originals stay nice), I took a hole-puncher and a kit knife so that I can do rubbings of marks that I need (gathers, darts, zipper and the like).



Now I was ready to cut out the pieces.  Using my pattern weights, rotary mat and cutters I cut out the pieces.  I LOVE my rotary cutters, I wish that I had gotten them a long while back.  If you do decide to use these remember to go slowly with cutting.  As my Costuming Professor once said,  "If you make a wrong cut you can't reattach it."  I did go slow and only got off the line a few times but I caught myself in time that I didn't ruin things that way.



After each piece was cut-out, I would then do my rubbings before I removed my pattern weights.  I would then mark in the top seam allowance on what would be the completed inside, what piece it was.  I would then move onto the next piece and repeat.  When marking use something that is made for tailoring and can easily be seen with out squinting.  Currently I am really liking my Blue Water-Soluble Marker and my Pink water soluble pencil and tailors chalk.  Majority of my creations tend to be whites and blues.  So for me marking tools pop for me to see the markings.  And they did disappear in the wash.



With all pieces cut out I tackled the darts and gathers.  The darts are rather straight forward where you fold the dart triangle in half and stitch from the bottum to the tip of the point, tie it off and trim the thread.  A trick that Colette has with gathers is to machine stitch 3 parallel lines at a larger stitch size, for the Dahlia Pattern it was 4-4.5.  After that you pull all 3 of either the top or bottom threads to complete the gathered look.  It looks and works a lot better than the zigzag trick that I am used to.

A side trick note that I got from Colette's Snipet posts, is using scraps of your fabric as thread keepers.

1. Anchor your thread into a piece of scrap material
2. Run your machine on a piece of scrap.
3. Leave space between your scrap and glory piece
4. Do Not Cut the Tail yet
5. Begin stitching your glory piece
1. Gather stitch = Do not anchor stitch
2. Non-Gather stitch = Anchor stitch
6. Run your machine to the end of your glory piece
1. Gather stitch = Do not anchor stitch
2. Non-Gather stitch = Anchor stitch
7. Leave the tail on & stitch into another scrap with an anchor stitch
8. Cut the tails off of the glory piece.
9. You already have your scrap prepped for your next glory piece.

This way you do not have all those random threads floating about because they are attached to a scrap.

The reason that I mention this now is because this is extremely helpful when working on the gathers.  Its easier to separate the top from the bottom threads.  It is also quite helpful when removing the gather stitches from the garment once the main seam is sewn.  I will get more into that later.

With the darts completed and the gathers prepped with their 3 rows of stitching that have not been officially gathered yet,  it was time to begin matching up and pinning the pieces together while following the instruction book.  I waited to create the gathered look until I have the pieces matched up and pinned up to the beginning and ending points of the gather.  I typically have these marked with my balled pins.  This way I know for certain how much to gather to fit where it needs to be.

Then it was time to sew.  Once I completed a seam that included the gather, I would...

1. Snip off 1 of the scrap tails.
2. Place 1 hand with a little pressure on-top of the gather.
3. Finish pulling out the threads pulled to create the gather
4. Grab the scrap & pull out the remain 3 strands.

Then I would just kept going and repeating what I needed to to complete the dress according to the Instruction Book.

The mock-up I did with a size 18 waist, but it was too tight, especially when I was sitting down.  So with my finale piece I bumped the waist up to a size 20.  So I had to redo my personalized patterns to match this.

Finale

Before I could begin cutting the fabric.  I needed to dye the lining.  In my search for my lining fabric, I did not like either the color or the feel of what I found.  I had made the decision to dye white fabric to the Teal Color that I desired.  After my previous dye-ing experience, I made sure that the fabric was 100% natural, because it takes dye better.  I wound up combining Jaquard's Emerald Green, Gun Metal & Turquoise to create Teal.  I followed the instructions given to dye and remove the excess color and fix the color to the fabric so that it wouldn't bleed onto other clothing.  This was all done in the washing machine, which was super easy.

With the fabric laundered and ironed, it was time to start constructing the finale.  I matched up the fold lines for both the outer fabric and the lining this way I can cut both at the same time with my rotary cutters.  The width of both fabrics are wider than my gingham, so I was able to flare out the skirt more.  I need to remember to mark on my kick-out pattern background to mark the original  top seam.  When I got around to construction, the end pieces didn't fully match up with the yoke that it attached to.  So I flared out the skirt more, then cut everything with my rotary cutters.

Lesson 1:

• If you think you know what you are doing, check again, especially if lining is involved.

I have never dealt with lining before.  So I was unaware of how backwards it was.  What I should have done was re-read the instructions and sort out the the pieces into Outer and Lining after cutting.  After which figure out which side of the bodice gets stitched versus not.  The Dahlia Pattern doesn't have a centered back zipper.  The zipper is in the left side seam.  This means that the lining needs to be stitched up opposite from the outer fabric.  Needless to say I had to break out the seam ripper to correct all the work that I had achieved one night (sewing the bodice to the yoke and the yoke to the skirt).  Technically my bodice lining is inside out but I don't care.  Its the lining and only I will see it.

Lesson 2:

• Don't sew if you are tired, your brain doesn't work.

I was tired and was having a difficult time understanding how to attach the zipper to the lining that I simply sewed through the Outer fabric, zipper and lining to get it done.  Naturally I still missed the lining in a couple of spots.

I got to the point that I was tired and needed to go to bed.  I had everything done except the hem.  So I trimmed the hem with my Pinking Shears (love these too), and called it a night.

I did wear my hem-less Peacock Garden Sundress yesterday.  In spite of my hiccups and flaws with the dress, I absolutely love it.  It fits me perfectly, especially in the top.  I am also proud of it.  It is 100 % me.  I learned a lot as you can tell from above.  

Additional and successful lessons include... 

1. Mastering French Seams:  all vertical seams except the zipper were done this way.
2. Using Bias Tape: Armholes and Neckline/ Straps

I am aware that this is technically not completed but my Artist Salon is coming up soon and I would like to see if I can fix the zipper mess and hem then.

That does it for me this time.  I will be back around July 28th.  I require a small break to get my ducks back in a row after this latest craftermath and prepping my Fall Equinox project.

Until then...