50's dress! Yeow!

After a couple of days doing only that which could be done from bed (a suprising amount really), i'm out and charging with the 50's dress project, which I all but abandoned here.

I cut and pinned first, deciding to leave off the original collar. The fantastic buttons are off a coat I inherited last year. The coat got different buttons and these have now found their home:

The amount of fabric used in the skirt was a straight guess. To gather the skirt I used a technique found on www.patternreview.com and sewed dental floss into a zig zag stitch around the miles of skirting. You simply pull the floss to create the gathers and a nice side effect is the fresh minty smell.

I loves learning from the internet.

I decided to do button loops rather than bound buttonholes. It'll look good and its easier, so win/win.  So this is where I was at last night, with only zip, buttons and hem to go, and all on pause until i can buy a zip.

Front

Back

One small thing that infuriates/ delights me is how shops close at midday on Saturday to reopen on Monday afternoon. Thats a long time to be without a zip fix. Oh and then you can't buy fabric and buttons at the same shop, and the button shop probably doesn't sell thread or needles either. And there is actually a shop in Florence that sells only zips, and anyone else is likely to tell you that what you're looking for doesn't exist. Its kooky. And it's infuriating/ delightful.

I'm still me-made-marching, with at least one homemade piece each day, and I'm suprising myself. With computer troubles and a cold I haven't been taking daily photos, but I'll see if I can work up the enthusiasm for the rest of the month.