Sewing Lessons Day

Today was sewing lessons day with Sarah and Emily. We finished making our samples of seam types and seam finishes. We only have Tricot Bound left to do (I didn't have any Seams Great) and Serged. I'm not going to get into serging until the girls have a good grip on sewing first. Next week we will do some Creative Seaming techniques (bound and lapped, fringed and overlapped, slot seams, etc.). Then that will wrap up seams and we will start on learning some applique techniques next. And after applique, we will learn some creative fabric modifications (embossing, hand-painting, broomsticking, dyeing, acid-etching, felting, etc.)

On the project front, Emily finished her first project today! A sheath dress with lined empire bodice, bodice and skirt darts, overlapped invisible back zipper and turned straps. Lots to learn there for a beginner! The zipper frustrated us both a bit today. It fit in perfectly during the basting stage, but when Emily went to do the final stitching, one side turned out longer than the other so that the upper bodice edges were uneven. I have no idea how this happened. I had her undo and redo a couple of times. Each time the baste was fine, but the final stitch warped the zipper somehow. She finally got it down to a not-too-discernible, but still-not-perfect level and decided that that was good enough for a first run at a zipper. And on a difficult slippery polyester to boot! She took the dress home to hand hem and do the final cleaning up and pressing. I'll have her bring it back next week for photos and to fill out her Project Review Form.

Sarah had an interesting session with her vest today. It was strangely large on her compared to our first fitting. So we ended up doing what amounted to almost draping on her today. She altered the design lines on the vest point and back hem line quite a bit, using tailor tacks to mark the new design lines. She's taking quite a bit of time and putting a lot of thought into these first fitting and design sessions. I was concerned that she might be getting bored with how long its taking to get to the actual construction process, but she seems quite content to invest the time needed to get exactly what she wants. It was an educational process and we were both surprised at how much a simple inch shift in a design line can change the whole silhouette and look of a piece. Shifting her vest points and side length just a bit took the vest from being "cowgirl" (her words) to "shapely classic." She has a good eye and solid instincts. She can be trusted to make good design choices. I'm hoping that we can make some swift progress next week as we finally begin construction. She might be patient, but I'm getting anxious to see what this will look like!!!

I'm off to catch up on housework. It gets neglected a bit on Mondays, but sewing is SO MUCH MORE FUN! :) :)