The making of the Lolita Dress and the Tea Dress

I made the Lolita Dress today and nearly finished the Tea Dress. All I have left to do on the Tea Dress is adjust the front darts a bit and sew on the two decorative buttons. I might change the sleeves a little too. I don't love them as is.

Here's how my sewing went today...

I started with the Lolita Dress. First, I ironed fusible interfacing to the facing pieces.

Then, I sewed darts int he front and back bodice pieces.

After sewing the bodice pieces together at the shoulders and sewing the yoke pieces together, I sewed the yoke to the bodice neckline, sandwiching black piping in the seam.

I sewed solid yellow bias binding to the arm holes and sewed the bodice up the sides.

I sewed the skirt pieces up the sides and hemmed the skirt.

I gathered the top of the skirt using my favorite method.

I sewed the skirt to the bodice.

Then, I sewed the skirt up the back from the hem to the base of where the zipper would start and hand basted the rest of the way up.

After ironing the based seam open, I sewed in the zipper.

Then, I sewed the facing onto the neckline and ironed it under.

I hand sewed two decorative buttons to the front and voila!

***

Next up was the Tea Dress. I started by ironing fusible interfacing to the collar pieces.

Then, I sewed darts in the bodice pieces.

I sewed the sleeves at the shoulders and sewed up the sides and the sleeves.

After sewing three sides of each collar piece and flipping them right-side-out, I ironed them flat.

Then, I topstitched around their edges.

I sewed the collar to the V-neck of the bodice, sandwiching it under the facing.

I sewed the skirt and zipper in the same way as with the Lolita Dress.

Look at all the scraps!

Almost done:

This was the first time I worked with silk chemise, and, while it wasn't so hard in some ways (the slipperiness didn't make sewing seams all that hard), it was difficult in unexpected ways (the darts are a little bumpy and need to be fixed.) It was a long day though, so I decided to get some rest and attach the changes another day.

I hoped you enjoyed seeing my progress!

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