Monday, February 18, 2008

30. The Final Cut!

It's done! The silk has been cut! All of it! :)
Yes, with Barbara's help, I accomplished my goal for the three-day weekend! We hand-stitched nine organza pieces (cut from the muslin pieces and marked with thread) to the silk and then I cut the silk out around the organza.
I had been nervous about cutting into the (expensive) silk, but by the time we had stitched the organza on, it didn't seem like such a big deal.
Barbara and I did the two back skirt pieces on Saturday. I did the five bodice pieces on Sunday. And Barbara came back on Monday to help me with the front skirt piece. :)
The organza is flimsy and doesn't hold its shape well, so it was REALLY great to have a second person there, assessing everything and helping me figure out how to ensure that the pieces (especially the front skirt piece!) were laid out correctly.
One of the reasons I decided to add an organza underlining was so that I could put the markings on the organza and not have to mark the silk in any way. But I'm not sure that I've really shown the basted thread markings on the organza yet. So, here is a shot of the pattern piece for the skirt front:



Notice all those short lines indicating where the folds are placed? And the grainline? And the two small marks where the princess seams of the bodice should line up? Now, here is the (un-ironed) organza front skirt piece with those same marks indicated by thread basting:


Next up: assembly! :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Woo Hoo! I'm glad you had such a productive weekend! How wonderfully nice of Barbara to come and help. You go girl!!
Love, Kathy

Emily said...

Yeah -- I totally understand why you can order the spiral steel boning in pre-cut lengths now! I ordered a bunch of spiral steel from Greenberg and Hammer in NYC and meant to buy boning channels too, but forgot. So, then I just figured I'd make my own... but, all of this is a little more difficult than I imagined. :) I'm hoping to get to NYC soon for fabric and other supplies, so maybe I'll have to get some pre-cut boning then. I did go out and buy this huge wire cutter, so I'm still hopeful that it will work. Well done on getting everything thread-traced!