Well, I knew that this dress would have to be sewn slowly because of the pattern-matching, but I did not anticipate the delays I’ve had today.
I went out to find new lining, and discovered that Bemberg lining is now an outrageous $33.50/m at my local Fabricland. WTF is up with that? Who has $33.50 (-20%) to spend on lining, FFS? Not me! There were other options to choose from:
- European lining, with unknown fibre content but it feels like it has some rayon or viscose in it. Was on sale for $3/m but in very limited colours, and I wasn’t a huge fan.
- Premiere Lining, which is $8/m and 100% poly with anti-static treatment, which sounds like a feature but actually makes it feel like wearable plastic. There were good colours, but the wearability of this garment is important to me. I’m not gonna do this much work to make the dress and then put a shite lining into it.
- Laurier lining, which felt quite nice and had a good colour option, but turned out to be $24/m (-20%) and did I mention I’m a single parent?
- Willow lining, which the staff person found for me, and which was $4/m and came in a good colour, and had a fairly nice drape and hand to it even though it was 100% polyester.
I went with the Willow lining because mama’s money tree is dormant for the winter. Then I did my grocery shopping, returned my recycling, picked up a few things at the dollar store… two hours later I got home.
Then I started stitching together the bodice, and it was going swimmingly … until I noticed that my piping has a 3/4” seam allowance so the two seams I’d already sewn were already shrinking the bodice by 1/2”. So I seam-ripped the pieces apart (yes, after top-stitching, FML) and in the process, put holes in two of my bodice pieces at the seamline. Cut out new pieces (thankful for having extra fabric!) and trimmed all my piping s/a down to 1/2” which is the dimension I prefer to work with.
By the time I got around to the shoulder seams, it was 5:30pm. I did my best to pin-match the piping, but the first seam did not turn out at all right. I took it out, hand-tacked the piping together, and resewed it perfectly. Absolutely perfectly.
And then there’s the next shoulder… I hand-tacked this one as well, but it didn’t turn out so well. I am seriously torn as to whether I should unstitch the seam and do it over… I probably will. But I decided to leave it for the time being, and get to work on the bodice lining.
Oh also… I know the pattern matching isn’t the greatest up near the shoulders, but it matches from the bustline down, and as I may be wearing a jacket or cardigan over this, I wanted to get the stripes right at the most visible places. Due to the shaping of the princess seams, it can’t be perfect the whole way up without weirdly distorting the fabric.
So next came the lining… I laid out and cut out all the pieces for the bodice, midriff and skirt, and then started constructing the bodice.
As I was pressing the seams, I felt an ominous sticking of the iron… yep, the fabric f’ing melts under the iron if it’s on anything over half-heat. This polyester may look and feel nice, but it’s cheap-ass plastic fibre and there’s no way I will put something like this into a dress I’m putting so much work into.
Did I mention it was already 5:30 when I started cutting the lining? So by the time I realized this lining was un-usable, it was well past 6:15pm and the fabric store was closed. Well fuck.
I went digging in my deep stash, and also in a bag of fabrics that I was just about to give away, and found a roll of cream-coloured lining that is either Laurier or Bemberg, probably bought on 50% sale and probably before I became a Single Income Household. It is a bit more bright than I’d wanted to use, but it’s all I have got without spending more $. And since I was about to give it away, it’s basically free.
I got the bodice pieces cut out by about 8pm (stopped for dinner) and then my cat announced it was past my bedtime, and frankly I was feeling really exhausted.
Called it a night, watched Project Runway on the couch, and now I’m seriously considering whether to go ahead with this other lining or try another fabric store (Gala Fabrics) tomorrow for other lining options. But first, sleep.
