Sometimes things seem to crumble and recreate themselves at their own will.  For some reason, after weeks of reticence, I sat at my machine tonight.  I constructed the two sleeves to my dress, added a bias strip to the cuff, hemmed them, and basted one on.  It looks pretty good.  The next step is to sew it on with a smaller stitch and then do the same for the second sleeve.  Hopefully I’ll finish this dress after all!  

If I don’t finish this frickin’ midriff soon, I’m gonna scrap the whole thing. No, not really. But seriously, this is super frustrating. Here’s why: 

My attempt is to make the midriff more functional, for it to flap open rather than for it to just be decorative.  This way the dress will be easier to pull on and off.  Somehow, some(how?) the first midriff was too small for the dress.  Weirdness.  So I cut a new one, two of each of the front pieces (luckily, the back piece was fine), and basted them together.  (I’m doubling the midriff since it’s being made from a flimsy muslin.)  I redid the point on the one piece and it looks good.  But I realize now, that I need a bigger second piece in order for it to flap.  Duh!

See - the part on the right needs to fit the entire length of the flap now, and not just meet the pointed part…

Also, for some reason now I’m not getting seams and triangles to line up.  Ugh!  (If you sew from patterns, you know what I’m talking about.  If you don’t, don’t worry about it.)

Oh well.  In other news, I’ve readjusted the flaps of the bodice to give the collar a more open, less constrictive look.  I think it’s prettier.  See?

P.S.  Sorry I’m not so eloquent when I write about technical stuff.  So hard to explain! 

Stay tuned for more updates!

Unfortunately tonight’s progress wasn’t that visual.  Meaning that that little strip of white that I’m holding up in the pic is sort of disappointing to behold, right?  Believe it or not it was kind of a lot of work.  That’s going to be the midriff.  I’d love to keep working but, alas! there are other tasks calling my name tonight.  Like taking care of my horribly overgrown and polish-chipped nails!  (I can’t stand long nails…)