19 days…

…and we’re making progress.

Yesterday  I spent a glorious autumn afternoon in the car listening to podcasts of Desert Island Discs and driving to the Midlands to meet Alice-who-isn’t-a-cat at a motorway service station for coffee and a fitting session.

The coffee raised no eyebrows.  I can’t say the same for the fitting session in the rather unpleasant ladies loos.

Thankfully the dress fits perfectly so we could escape very quickly.  But the sight of a tall brunette in a half finished satin frock and matching shoes was more than some of the other occupants could quite get to grips with.

Unfortunately, the visit was not without problems.

I discovered a stain on the front bodice.

WTF!!!!!

Sewing gods, why do you try me so?

I’ve no idea what it is.

I’ve no idea where it came from.

So  today I removed the bodice (again) and cut another bodice front.  By lunchtime the dress was ready for hemming (I just need some ribbon and I can get that done), and I’d had the opportunity to add one more little “couture” touch to make it all look just that little bit better.

Instead of under-stitching the lining on the machine, I did it by hand, with a toning thread.  I love this detail!

And my dress?

I spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday of last week hand-stitching net and cotton lawn to 14 pieces of face fabric. Today I machined my first seam.  This feels like a corner turned.

I love how the layers of interlining give you a beautiful seam with no seam allowance “show through” on the right side.

I’m using a contrast zip just for an unexpected pop of colour.  It shouldn’t work, but it does!

And I just love a hand picked zip….so easy to do and you have absolute control over the thing.  Goodbye wiggly zipper. And you can hardly see the stitches on this duchesse.

Tomorrow I put all the dress shell pieces together.