News

          Hello all and happy spring!      Last week I returned from my much needed spring break trip to Thailand and I am just now settling back into the swing of things. I always forget how bad the jet-lag is coming back. Before I left, I was tired of staring at the same walls in my house and needed to get away (working from home will do that to a gal). Now I'm just tired from traveling but I am also refreshed and ready to get back to work.      Anyhow, we had a great...

Hello stitchers! Today we finish our Bridgetown dress! This is the shortest entry of the sew-along; we are simply joining the bodice and skirt, and installing our elasticized waist. First, we sew up the bodice to the skirt, right sides together, at 1" (top of page 15). I used the lightning bolt stitch for strength. Making sure there are no puckers in this seam, clip those long facing ends, and then finish this raw edge: Stitching from either the public or inner side of the garment, stitch down this finished raw edge to the skirt side. In this case, I...

Hello stitchers! Today we are halfway through our Bridgetown backless dress, in knit jersey. We will be attaching our sleeves, and constructing our side seams and hem. I absolutely love the sleeves on this dress. They are constructed so that the hem is created by a fold, bisecting the sleeve's width (piece C). Fold the sleeve wrong-sides together, and presew on the raw curved edges (top of page 11). In my case, the jersey "glued" to itself nicely, so I did not presew. Recall the notches on both the front and back bodice armscye; those, as well as the shoulder...

Hello stitchers! Today we are starting our Bridgetown in a jersey fabric - in my case, a lovely stretch hemp from Nature's Fabrics, in a colorway called "Everglade". I made version C - that is, the dress length with the shallow hem. Above, you see my supplies - the fabric, needels (both a ballpoint for construction and a twin needle for topstitching), elastic, and matching thread. If you are relatively knew to sewing with knit fabrics, you will probably know you want to have the proper needle (ballpoint or jersey are best for most knits) and a strong thread (polyester or...

Can you believe it? Today we finish our Bridgetown Dress! This post will demonstrate finishing our hems and side slit (if we've added the latter), and creating our elasticized waist. So, for those of us making a side slit, these next eleven photos and instruction are for us! In our previous entry we had finished the side seams, including the seams of the hem. At this point, if we are serging, we can serge-finish the entire hem, leaving a long serge chain and threading this chain back into the wrong-side of the serged hem edge. If you're not serging, you can either fold here,...