Chocolate 30s wool Crepe Dress Progress

Happy Saturday.

My internet is still out and I'm in a very sour mood about it, but I have more pressing things to worry about. Like this dress!

Actually it's nearly complete, and it turns out I have some place to wear it on Sunday. I'm going to Cicada! Mickey Rooney is singing, and apparently its a big deal, so a lot of us are going! Hehehe!

Anyway, the dress.

Last time we talked, I was working on attaching the two front pieces. My deal is when I have something that matches like this, to make sure it matches at the side seams as well. I know is supposed to anyway, but you would be surprised at how tough that can be, especially if you alter the garment beforehand.

*raises hand*

They didn't match too well so I had to do some altering. Like forty minutes of altering. I got them *near* perfect, I guess. I think that was my limit. The next time I make this dress, because let's face it, the bodice detail is fairly bitchin', I'll alter my pattern to compensate.

Another challenge I find is crepe. I do so love wool crepe but its not a very friendly fabric to work with. It can pull and tug and stress and you won't notice it until a bit later when there is no way to change what you did. Darn you, wool crepe!

One thing I've learned to do, and this might just be me, is I actually add about 1-1 1/2" to the waist and blend it in.

It takes away a lot of the pull that I find happens with wool crepe, especially if its cut into a gored skirt. Crepe is heavy, especially mine because I machine washed to kill some shrinkage, so it tightened up to a rather grand texture. Letting it hang like I mentioned in the earlier post let a lot of the skirt gather just fall out. I steam pressed out the rest.

Next were the sleeves. Again, my need to not have top stitching. I had a choice: Top stitch on the tie for the sleeves as is suggested in the pictures for the pattern (the instruction sheet was missing), or, do it my way which will take more time, but will look more awesome.

I'm sure by now your can tell which one I picked.

I gathered the cuffs of the puff sleeve and stitched where the tie cuff said it needed to be stitched. With sleeves with gathers, I always pay close attention to matching notches. In the past I didn't and I'd be all perplexed as to why my sleeve kept twisting. Well, stupid me, it's because those notches not only tell you where and how much to gather, but help keep the drape of the sleeve straight because that's hard to see when all that fabric is bunched up.

So look listen and hand stitch. I pinned the cuff to the sleeve and I decided to had stitch the inside first, then do a hidden stitch for the front. So I sewed each cuff on twice. Yeah, I know. But the stitches are not seen and you have to admit, it looks cool.

But then I had another dilemma. Okay, in a lot of 30s pattern I have, often finishes with tassels like this sleeve are instructed to simply be tied together, as if the fabric were as thin a silk and tying four layers of fabric into a know was nothing at all.

HA!

The crepe was way too thick to be tied. You think I would have learned that lesson after the skull cap hats :) In this case, I needed to have the cuff, which was a snug fit, be able to open and close, so a permanent tie was not an option. I decided to make a fake bow with the cuffs because I had to use all that fabric!

I bunched up each side of the cuff and sewed it down. Next I broke out my vintage hook and eye packets which I say I forgot how AWESOME they were! So much so that I must do a post on them later, seriously, they are amazing. With the hook and eyes I can simply open and close the cuffs at my leisure and the 'bow' the folded pieces make mimics the original design. I love it when a plan works out.

I put in the zipper and now all I have to do is hem the skirt. I am gonna look so cute! Hmm...what accessories should I wear with this!? A hat perhaps?

Way ahead of you.

Finished photos (of the hat) on NVL.