Underdress

    I used to hate hand sewing. I have dresses that I made 25 years ago still hanging in a closet waiting for a hem or buttons or to have the facings tacked down. Maybe all of the above. I'm not exactly sure when the transition occurred, but I don't hate it anymore. Give me a long hem and a couple of episodes of This American Life and I'm a happy craftsman-gal. I still don't like sewing on buttons, but I don't dread it anymore.
    The underdress that I mostly finished yesterday requires a lot of seam finishing because it is made of a ravelly cloth, and because I don't make costumes: I make clothes that are simply out of fashion. I want them to wear like clothes and not fall apart the first time you wear them in public. Or when answering the door for Trick-or-Treaters. Or ever.
    I will finish seams with a sewing machine most of the time, but there are seams that you just can't get to without being able to reach up inside a sleeve or without being able to guarantee that four layers of fabric won't skid apart when you squash them with a presser foot.
    On this project, there's a little of hand and a little bit of machine. So I'm able to be satisfied without getting too bored or antsy that the project isn't moving fast enough.

    I still have some hemming to do, but here is the gist of it. It will not stay white for long. I got a small selection of dyes from Dharma Trading and once I get all my pieces made, I'm going to start dunking and stirring them in buckets.

    And that's that for tonight. I have some writing to do, but nothing that will go in here. Not for awhile, anyway.