We are nearing the end of the flower girl dress project. I have one more dress to go, and then I have to wait until the flower girls are in town so I can fit the dresses, properly hem them and add the zippers! I’m excited – it’s wedding crunch time at the moment. It’s still about fifty days away, but that’s nothing, and all of these projects are going to run into each other soon enough if they’re not done soon. Therefore I want the dresses out of the way. I’m only not finishing dress # 3 today because I needed to order more lining fabric for it, which should be here Friday!

Adding the skirt was the order of the day. First, the skirt pattern needed to be chosen. I decided to go with the Sense and Sensibility Regency Girl’s Dress pattern, and it worked perfectly!

Cutting out the lining. (I neglected to take pictures this time around of cutting the skirt pieces.)

After sewing the skirt pieces together (of the lining), I used the pinking shears to finish the edge. I love pinking shears – they are the simplest way to finish an edge and they’re just really fun to cut with… I realize this may be a form of fun only another seamstress can understand.

Doing a “pre-hem” on the bodice lining to make my life a little easier once the girls tryi ont the dresses. I do a very narrow hem and then take it up from there if need be.

Laying out the skirt pattern pieces to get them ready. Because of the sheer nature of the fabric, I wanted to do French seams (which sounds complex, but is really pretty simple). French seaming is something that scared me when I first started sewing, but once I tried it for the first time, discovered that it’s really very easy and it does make the finished seam look nice and neat (basically you sew the pieces together wrong sides first, then turn them right sides together and encase the raw edge).

Encasing the edge on the French seam.

The finished French seam on one of the skirt pieces.

Gathering the skirt pieces together, preparing them to be sewing to the bodice.

The almost finished product! It’s just waiting to be tried on and polished off and then it’s good to go for the wedding.

The next step won’t happen until the third week of August, but I will do my best to document the fittings and the adding of the zipper.