Saturday, July 16, 2011

One Panel At A Time

I had a block of time last night, so I decided to begin cutting the gray/white striped dress.  I've cut even and uneven plaids, even and uneven stripes before, but never a chevron effect.  I was a bit concerned.  One mistake could be disasterous.  Therefore, the decision to cut one panel at a time seemed like a good one.   Luckily, I have plenty of fabric, but I don't want to waste any of it. 

The first piece, CF panel, was easy.  I made sure the stripe went in the upward position.  I used the cut fabric as the pattern for the mirror image of the second side.  I managed to line up the stripes easy enough for perfection.  In preparing to sew CF, I carefully pinned each strip, so lots of pins were involved.  I attached my walking foot to my machine to avoid slipage.  Things went smoothly, and I was very pleased with the result.



My next challenge were the front two side panels.  Again, I cut one panel at a time.  A difference was making sure the stripe went in the downward position.  Again, one fabric side was used for the pattern of the other. 

Today I sewed the two side panels to the front.  Up to the bust line the stripes matched perfectly.  Impossible from then on.  I love top-stitching, but I changed my mind about adding it to this dress.  I don't want the stitching to distract from the bevels.  So far so good.