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Back the Blue Dress

Project overview

Name Back the Blue Dress
Status finished
Happiness
Started Sep 13, 2021
Completed Sep 17, 2021
Progress 0 %
Privacy public
Notes We are attending a friend's wedding in early October to celebrate the marriage of a firefighter (bride) and a police officer (groom). The bridal couple has requested that guests wear red to honor the fire department, or blue to honor the police department. My stash included yardage of blue polyester challis with a slight sheen, which seemed perfect for this pattern.

The good: Wow, what a learning curve with this one. I sewed my first kick pleat, which turned out very well following an online tutorial. I also sewed my first invisible zipper, which turned out not so well, but still acceptable and a good experience. I love this design! It fit remarkably well using custom measurements and my usual adjustments. The sleeves were ever so slightly tight (flexed arm) even with the "increased" modification for biceps - might have to swallow my pride and select "big" next time. Speaking of, I also lengthened the skirt by 2" above the vent, because my knees are old.

The bad: Holy smokes, I hate polyester. It frays badly, resists manipulations and easing, and generally fights back at every step. I can't blame the polyester for all the ripping out I did on this dress, but it's possible my already elevated level of frustration might have caused me to set in at least one sleeve inside out. (My story, and I'm sticking to it.) The one glitch I had with the pattern itself was the hem allowance on the sleeves, which taper significantly towards the wrist and continued to taper within the hem allowance, leaving the wrist edge of the hem significantly narrower than the sleeve it was supposed to fold back and match up to. If I'd been thinking, I would have modified the pattern to allow for that before I cut it out. As it was, I sacrificed some of the seam allowance within the hem and made it work, but it wasn't pretty.

Overall, though, I'm really very pleased with this one! Thanks to Lekala for another great design!

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