Easter Dress 2010 Done!

Finally, Laurel’s Easter dress is done.  It turned out shorter than I had planned so I have added a few rows of lace to the slip hem –or “tail” as Elizabeth Travis Johnson always called it–to add a little more length.  By the time I finished it, the lighting wasn’t good so I will post a picture tomorrow of the dress and slip together.

Generally, I am pleased with the dress.  Now that it’s done, I wish I had dropped the yoke to the bottom of the armscye.  On the other hand, this will twirl better and every little girl loves to twirl.

Using Swiss organdy for the sleeves was a must, as the finella batiste has no  body whatsoever.  Even with starch, there would have been no pouf to the sleeve.

The butterfly opening, I think, adds a little interest as well as another opportunity to show off the fabulous fagoted lace.  The beading is really just huge entredeux, sold some time ago by Martha Pullen Company and called fagoting back then. That was before this ages old term was deemed politically incorrect.  The fagoting technique is now referred to as “bridging” but I doubt they call this product “bridges.” The fancy entredeux is joined to either side of this.

I prefer entredeux beading, tatting or this fagoting because they all wear so much better than lace beading.  If a sleeve is actually drawn up with ribbon, there is a lot of stress on lace beading.  After replacing the lace beading on two of Rebecca’s heirloom dresses years ago, I vowed not to use it again on sleeves, except for an infant.

Another feature that pleases me is  the fancy entredeux on the sleeves and bodice.  On one of my  teaching trips to Australia, my dear hostess gave me a bag of these “scraps.”  She had a store in Sydney and when the bolt was near the end, she threw the short ends into a bag and opened a new  bolt.  Some of the pieces are as short as 6” and a few  as long as 24″ .

I was so pleased to have them for this dress and Alastairs duck bubble.  And all the while I was sewing it, I was reminiscing about the delightful Australian ladies in my classes and the fun we all had, in class and out.

Mildred Turner burning up her stockings trying to warm her feet on a space heater in our frigid hotel room, Lezette Thomason fashioning a gag gift “booby trap” (bra) for me out of my beloved Liberty of London tanna lawn, Southern-belle proper Eloise Smith and lovely Sheila Yates, along with the rest of the crowd  at at the Kangaroo Park in Sydney, gawking and blushing at a huge male kangaroo proudly exposing himself  to the female kangas and the crowds …….but I digress.

I’m still debating whether or not to weave floss through the holes of this fancy entredeux.   For one thing, it will take precious time which is in short supply now.  And for another, whenever I deliberate over whether to add or cease and desist on an heirloom project, I usually desist.  More isn’t always better.  On the other hand, I love the look…….What do you think?

And the hemstitching, I think, is just spectacular.  Done on my Brother Duetta (4500D), it is just flawless.  I’ve had the same results from Brother’s ULT series machines.  Those engineers know how to generate perfect hemstitches.

When the Elna 7000 came out, Creative Needle magazine featured an article by Melissa Stone, daughter of Sarah Howard Stone.  It was a step-by-step heirloom dress, including puffing edged with machine made entredeux.  Pinstitching was used for other lace attachment.  I thought I would die until I was the proud owner of that machine.  Later, I had the Elna 9000/Diva and thought nothing could ever equal or surpass that hemstitching.  But my Brothers have.  I use the hemstitches every chance I get.

I want to thank  you all for your kind words of support when I was so having so much difficulty with this dress.  Writing a blog is so different from writing a magazine article, where everything has to be perfect and  be written up with such specificity that there was no room for error—nor for the perception that the finished result was not the initially planned look. It’s liberating to be able to whine and wail about sewing challenges and heartwarming to read your encouragement.  I do  think the dress turned out better with the wider fancyband and the slip “tail” hanging down.

Now, off to make Robert Charles’ shorts and shirt…….Happy Easter sewing to each of you!

Posted for White Wednesday.