After another productive day. I got the undersleeves…
and the collar done.
I’m a bit aggravated because the collar looks crooked when the ribbon isn’t over top of it. The only thing I can think of is there is too much over lap in the front bodice closure and that must be because I have picked one size to big for the front pieces. I have been thinking the closure looks a little off to one side thus making the collar look crooked. May be my “girls” are not as over sized as I thought! Anyway, it is done! I will file that information about the bodice for the next dress and consider it “live and learn”.
I promised a faux tutorial on the shawl. I found a huge piece of fabric at a second-hand store. It is obviously meant for home decor but I was attracted to the pattern and to the weight of the material. It looked believable as shawl material. I have no idea of fiber content. Being home decor, it would be safe to bet it has synthetic fibers. (Shhhh, keep my secret!)
The fabric was too long and the edges were cut ragged. I wanted to have a perfectly straight edge so I pulled threads out where I wanted the cuts to happen. The space left by the threads provided a perfectly straight line to follow with my scissors.
Can you see the line across the middle?
Then I cut. Pretty idiot proof. About 1 1/2 inches in from the cut edge I sewed a line to prevent the fabric from unraveling to far. And then I commenced unraveling the threads up to the sewing line.
Note the white sewing line and the unraveling.
That’s it. Ta Da!
There is the fringe along the bottom.
All in all a productive weekend. I finished the dress a month ahead of time. This will give me time to practice wearing it. (ie Getting in and out of car with hoops on!)
Wanda B Victorian 