Sunday 3 April 2011

My Sabrina Dress #6 - Bodice construction

I have made lots of progress on My Sabrina Dress and spent much time and attention getting the bodice right. The front piece has soft pleats which were quite straightforward to sew. I just pinned them down and pressed the lower end to help when taking it to the machine.
 The back is darted and I used my favourite method to do them. Start at the raw edge and when close to tip reduce stitch length. Don't back sew to avoid puckering. When you reach the end raise the presser foot, move the fabric so the needle goes inside the dart and the back sew. You can see a proper explanation of these here. I learned this awesome method through Gertie's Blog For Better Sewing when sewing along the Crepe Wrap Dress.
 I decided to follow pattern instructions and use bias binding to finish facing raw edges. I went for a soft pink just because it doesn't show on the outside. I really do not like wearing a lot of pink. I started by opening the binding and pinning to the edges of the fabric...but...I didn't take in account cloth allowance so the binding didn't wrap around the seam nice and smoothly.
The end result is a bit shoddy, as you can see from photo below but I overlooked it as the front of the facing isn't as bad. (You'll see a inside shot when dress is finished).
When the time came to attach the binding to the armhole facing I took in consideration the cloth allowance and the results are much, much better. I do need to practice sewing bias binding. With my underbust corset the bias is also very poorly sewn.
And voila, the bodice is completed! The end is near and I suspect I will have a whole dress to show you by next weekend. Before that I'll post about waist seams and seam finishes!

9 comments:

  1. It looks really well made so far Suzy. I love that fabric, where is it from? I was just whinging on another blog that I seem to have no time for sewing at the moment. I *could* be doing it today...if only I didn't have a stinking cold :( xx

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  2. Wow that looks great. Looking forward to seeing the finished dress.

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  3. Yeay! That dress is shaping up very, very well. You made ​​it look easy things more complicated, I'm looking forward to seeing more progress on it.

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  4. That looks like it's going to be one beautiful dress.

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  5. The bodice is looking great. The fabric is gorgeous. I can't wait to see it all finished.

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  6. Can't wait to see the finished dress, the bodice looks beautiful and very professional. x

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  7. its beautiful and the dress will be too :) cant wait to see it all finished :)

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  8. Lovely! Looking forwards to seeing the finished item!

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  9. What a lovely dress! And you were so brave to tackle it.

    Every sewing machine sold back in the dark ages used to come with a variety of attachments, and usually included a bias binding foot, which does the whole thing in one step. There's a video of this in action at
    http://www.sewingmachine-sales.co.uk/sewing_machine_info/video/36/bias-binder.html

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