S7236 Not Quite Finished

Well, as much as I had hoped to have a finished dress to share with you today, it's just not going to happen.  I have an inherent ability to take what should be a simple straightforward pattern and add one or two extra elements that means a ton of extra handsewing. lol oh well... 

Here's what I've got for you...

On the fabric I am making the dress out of, there were two tags: one with care instructions and the other with some hand written info.  Washable wool blend could mean any number of fibres mixed in, but usually makes for easier cleaning etc.

When I was sorting through my patterns recently I came upon this fun little booklet from the American Wool Council:

The drawings were... amusing.

...but the info inside was good.  And I steamed my wool, rolled it up in some plastic, and left it overnight.

With the fabric prepped it was fairly easy to get it all cut out and I had a pretty easy time matching up the plaids where I could.

Stitching the main pieces together went pretty quickly as well.  I'm pretty happy with the shape and look of it.  The lining is attached at the collar and understitched.

Then I had a really really busy week and had to leave it at that for a while.  But today I was able to make some good progress. I enjoyed handstitching the hem, but wish my stitches were more even.  It hangs nice from the outside, though, so I'm happy with it.

For today I'm leaving it with some pinning in place.  I made an interfaced placket to cover the zipper on the inside and have it and the rest of the lining pinned in place around the zipper, but it will need to be hand stitched into place. That will have to wait for another day.

I like how it's coming along, but I've got several other projects that need my attention.  I'll really have to push to get this done soon or it may end up hanging around unfinished for a while. That would be bad. lol

Hope your week has started out nicely!