I had to work Sunday — perfect weather and time for my final project dress. Sometimes, when you wear a garment and take photos, you notice stuff you totally didn’t see before (like the fact that I need to get my hair back to one color). First, here’s the most flattering photo of the dress, but I’m not smiling — odd for me I was probably trying not to sweat.

I wore it Sunday and it was perfect for celebrating Italian Republic Day. My hemline is usually just below the knee and I’m making a concerted effort to sew shorter skirts. My knees felt all liberated and I feel taller. There are some issues at the armsyce because I forgot to add the shoulder seam allowance!!

Here I am smiling. I also acknowledge that the skirt is too big on me. I was really worried about it being small, so I have a touch more ease than I would were I too sew it again. See all the puckering at ruffle insertion? I think this happened because I sewed in the ruffle from top to bottom, and top stitched from bottom to top. You can’t see that in the original photo below.

I came home from my program tonight, picked out the top stitching, pressed and re-top stitched. It’s now perfect.

When I was in Seattle I got to try on the original Anthropologie dress I copied.

You can see here that they tacked down the ruffle (I didn’t) and they did not insert the ruffle. Just sewed it down along the outside dart. I learned a great deal from this project and will spend the summer perfecting my sloper. It’s a whole new world

Finally, are you ready for something crazy? After I blogged Saturday night, I actually went back out and picked up a second Featherweight. Long story short, there was a second one on Craigslist that I had been working on simultaneously and I felt it needed to be rescued. I know I should sell the first when I’m done cleaning up and repairing the carrying case and keep the second. Although I spent most of today wanting to keep both.

I think I’m going to name her Issie. You know, for Issac Singer.

Tags: featherweight, sewing machines