Progress part 3

Block. Fusing. Is. Done!!! (long sigh...) THANK GOODNESS! Now I can finally get down to the juicy part of making a garment--sewing! DH says to me today, "You're always working on sewing stuff." And no, I'm not. It's grunge work. Block fusing is not sewing. When I'm sitting at my machine, gathering, pinning a dart, etc., *that* is sewing. Cutting is not sewing either LOL.

Oh. I almost forgot that I still have to cut three more pattern pieces as well as the lining. But that's okay. Anything but what I've been doing the past 5 days. And to top it off, it seems that every time I go to an appointment, I have to go back for more. DS#2 now has two ortho appts. tomorrow, one in the morning, one in late afternoon. And I still haven't finished Christmas shopping, nor have I worked on housecleaning this week. But I'm not worried. This year I will not stress at Christmas time. Stress is not in my nature and I will not let this holiday season get me down with everything that doesn't get done.

I am going to stay a happy chick and not a grumpy one.

ETA I had to sit at field hockey intermurals tonight and found a great spot, the receptionist's desk, to lay my dress and underlining on to work on them. It was just long enough for the dress. The first thing I did was to work with the dress front and pinned DesignPlus fusible (bias) stay tape to the front neck so it wouldn't stretch. This was done very carefully. Then I laid the underlining fabric, cotton batiste, on top of the wrong side of the dress front. The fabrics were smoothed out and pinned at all edges. The waist tucks were pinned in place as well. I was going to do the back but ran out of pins. When I got home, I removed the neckline pins and ironed the bias stay tape in place, then repinned the neck area, and stitched the entire underlining and dress together at the edges. Then the waist tucks were stitched and the entire piece was pressed. A Microtex needle/cotton thread/taut sewing combo eliminated any seam puckering. Here is the dress front so far:

The bottom corner of the dress shows the black cotton batiste underlining. After contemplating the issue of lining, underlining, or both, I decided to just go with underlining. For the type and style of dress, underlining just seamed easier. I'll probably use a HongKong finish on the seams. The zipper was going to be handpicked with seed beads but I couldn't find the shade of red beads that was needed so it will just be a regular centered zipper. And why cotton batiste? Because I'm ALWAYS cold! Batiste doesn't feel cold like Bemberg rayon. So that completes my Progress part 3 for today.