50s wrap dress update

wHello darlings!

Last night I actually started on sewing my oh so adorable 50s wrap dress. It went together amazingly easily. The first step was to pin and sew the darts in the front and back bodice. I'm not going to lie to you dear readers - I hate darts. They're rather fussy with their placement and annoying to pin and sew. But they do make a garment fit so I suffered through sewing eight of them - yes EIGHT darts: three on each side of the front and two on the back. After sewing the darts, I sewed the two pieces of the overskirt together along the back seam, then sewed the skirt to the back bodice. The next step was to sew the front to the back at the shoulders, then I did a quick fitting. I looked the pattern up on a pattern review website and several people said they had issues with the fit, but Miss Dashwood and I agreed that no alteration was necessary. I was actually rather surprised considering I do not possess the desired silhouette of the early 1950s. In other words, I'm not very chesty. I do however possess hips that would make a non-curvy girl sigh in envy if she was in that era. My next step was to cut several strips of bias from the purple calico. I wanted to follow the pattern and use purchased bias but I could not find a good color and decided instead to just make my own. I pinned one strip to the dress - started at the hem of the underdress, up around the armhole and down the front of the overdress. I have the other side, plus the neckline to do. Then of course comes stitching the bias into place.

Other projects I worked on last night -
1. I finished modifying a bustle I made Miss Dashwood several months ago. She was uncomfortable wearing it with a bustle pillow so I took out the top piece that would set atop such a pillow and resewed the ribbon ties along the top ruffle. She seems rather pleased with it.
2. In preparation for a pirate themed event this weekend, I pulled out a cream colored cropped blouse (its actually part of a Bavarian drindl). The elastic at the bottom of the blouse has failed over the years - after all the blouse is older than I - so I removed a few stitches in the casing, snipped the elastic and pulled it out. I then checked my supplied and was unable to find narrow enough elastic but I did have elastic cord. So I threaded the cord through the circle at the end of a large safety pin and fed the doubled cord through the casing on the blouse. I tried it on, adjusted the cord, knotted it and snipped it. Viola, the blouse is now ready to be worn this weekend! I'm thinking of just pairing it with cream bloomers and a red sash. Don't know what shoes to wear though...

Things I need to do - (1) hem Mary's pants after I get matching thread (2) take in Miss Dashwood's dress (3) finish my retro dress (4) make outfits for the Misses Dashwood and Van Eycke. I've also got a couple Christmas gifts in the works - a quilt for my beau that I've started cutting fabric for and aprons for my parents that I've purchased fabric for. EDIT (5) I still need to finish my clockwork gypsy skirt. I'll be taking a lot of sewing to my beau's this weekend to work on, won't I?

Sew much to do! Sew little time!

A bientot, mes amis!

Miss Leah J Wilde