Summer Sewing
I’m working on a summer wardrobe and I’m thrilled to have actually finished this dress. I used Vogue 8232. It’s from the Very Easy Very Vogue line which is my favorite place to find a pattern-I like the “easy” part, grin.
I chose a tweed-patterned linen that I purchased from Tayo’s, ahem, a “few” years ago, lined it with Bemberg rayon and underlined with silk 
organza. TheBemberg makes it feels wonderful on, smooth and cool, perfect for our unforgiving Sacramento summers. I have underlined linen before and I love how it controls the linen, allowing a bit of “patina” while keeping it from becoming a wrinkled mess.
I did have an “opportunity” to add an Unexpected Design Detail when I accidentally cut into the front of the dress while snip-marking the neckline 
center. Unsure what else to do, I added this little triangular flap to the center front neckline. I think it looks great, but don’t tell me if you think it looks contrived!
I see from the back view it still needs some tweaking on fit, sigh.
A few notes on making this dress:
–To secure the organza underlining, I herringbone stitched it to the linen and treated the two layers as one from then on .
-I did not use a fancy seam finish-I pinked the seams with the wavy blade on my rotary cutter. Although it’s very 8th-grade-Home-Ec-ish, it keeps the fray down and reduces bulk. These seams are all hidden so it seems unnecessary to do a fancy finish.
-I did a narrow hem on the lining. It’s lovely and perfect. I learned how to do this from Susan Khalje. It is a little time consuming but very simple. I intend to post a tutorial-once I figure out how to do that!
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Meanwhile, I’m still working on my queen-sized Meet Me In Paris quilt, and getting used to my new Baby Lock Jane straight-stitch-only (SSO) machine. I got really frustrated with the free motion foot that come with the machine. It’s awful.
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If you try to look at your work under this foot, it obliterates a precise view-look at the pictures to the left. You can’t really tell where your needle is going to land. It’s a terrible design-why don’t these people call me before they design a foot??
Unfortunately, it appears that Baby Lock chose to make the shank length unique, so none of the feet from the other SSO machines work (Juki, Brother, etc.), nor do other feet from Baby Lock or even generic feet! Grrrrrr.
So what’s a girl to do? I got out my trusty Dremel and drilled out the offending plastic-now I have a clear view! I still want to try to alter another foot and not only drill out the plastic but cut the metal and bend it into a smaller oval. Hey, I’m getting good at this!
Wow, great work on the dress. You look great in it. Just a question, when you underline linen with silk organza, can it be washed or does that make it a dry clean dress? I understand that this one has a bemberg lining which I would guess makes it dry clean anyway, but if you didn’t have the lining?
Thanks! I washed the linen and Bemberg so I assume it’s washable at home. I didn’t pre-wash the organza since it doesn’t shrink and I wanted the stiff hand of it to remain. You made me think though-I just checked my trusty “Fabric Savvy” book to be sure. So yes, it’s washable. I always forget to pre-wash my zipper though so I may dry clean after all-hate that crinkly zipper look. I have made the mistake of not pre-shrinking the Bemberg before- it shrinks alot!
Very inventive little detail on the neckline. Re your Dremel work, I think soon you can hang out a new shingle–JKL Custom Quilting Feet!
Giggle!
Great ideas, Jenny. The design detail only makes it look more RTW, not home made. I like Bobbi’s questions about “washablity.” I would probably choose to do a serger seam finish. See, I keep trying to make the case of why you NEED a serger. Get one in time for the serger workshop on June 25th and we can learn more together. I would get the Baby Lock 4 thread as a first serger. The 8 thread is overkill unless you really MUST have the cover stitch option.
Uh, then that makes this a $1200 dress! I am resisting that pull to get a serger. One more machine to learn, more thread inventory. I do know if I get one it WILL be the Baby Lock with the puff threading-seems to be very low maintenance.
Yea! on success with the Dremel tool. Perhaps you could do a tutorial on that, too … my husband has a Dremel in the basement and I have been asking him to cut out the front of a foot for my Juki for a couple of years now. And I do love the dress .. your beautiful clothing keeps tempting me to try my hand at it again (like I have time…/not).
Oh you can cut up that foot on your own! They’re cheap so if you mess one up, not a big deal. I have like 3 on order so that I can really make what I want and might mess one up in the process. You’d be great at garment sewing!