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| I need to get some child-sized hangers, because this just looks weird. |
Bea's dress is finished, and it's completely lovable.
Despite the problems I had with the collar facing, the brain fart I had when attaching the skirt to the bodice and another trip through buttonhole hell, the effort was totally worth it. Little is more satisfying to me than working my way through a big challenge and learning things along the way.
Having a machine with automatic buttonholing is definitely better than having to do them by hand or create them with a regular zig-zag stitch, but they aren't foolproof. Not by a long shot. The first two went in perfectly, but the last one had me pulling out my trusty seam ripper, swearing under my breath, and holding a small LED flashlight between my teeth to make sure I was actually removing buttonhole stitches instead of poking ruinous holes in the bodice. "Third time's a charm," as the old saying goes for apparently a good reason.
The vintage buttons from Ma-Ma Harris' sewing kit look perfect and seem sound, even though they're plastic and nearly as old as I am.
One new technique I used on this project was blind-hemming using the machine, and even though I've never done it before, the process was smooth and quite easy after a bit of practice on some scrap fabric.
The result is a hem that looks hand-stitched and professional instead of the typical narrow machine hem, and I will absolutely be using it again.
The blind-hem foot came with a set of presser feet I recently ordered from Amazon on a whim, because it was only $25, and I am my mother's daughter -
"If it's as good as they say it is for this price, great. If not, I'll send it back."
Thirty-four of them!! I have no idea how these cost less than a dollar apiece. They're of comparable quality to what came with my machine, and other than they aren't labeled with standard numbers and/or letters and came with no instructions whatsoever, they have the same craftsmanship, and let's face it, there's a YouTube video for everything. Type in, "braid foot tutorial" or "machine blind hemming," and take your pick of sewing goddesses ready to show you exactly how to use one.
My transition in to a sewing nerd continues.
I promise I will write about other things again soon.
