30 January - The Lining!

Yesterday was spent mostly in bed with a stomach bug - this certainly has been my week for catching things!  But today, while not completely out of the woods, I was able to get the lining sewn; slowly, heart-breakingly slowly, as it was necessary to pause and rest between almost every step of the process.

The only work left on the lining is to finish the edges of the last two seams, left un-turned in case I needed to make adjustments after a final fitting.  I'm finishing all the lining seams with a flat-felled finish, both easy and, well, flat!

Here's my sweet Marple, curled up on the chair near which I work.  She's partial to me, and according to my little brother "She gets thinner when you're at college!"  She slept next to me in bed all of yesterday when I was feeling so sick, too - there's devotion.  (And, since she so often attempts to sit in my lap whilst I sew, I feel justified in including a photo of her on a dress diary blog!)

A trying-on of the lining proves it to fit very well.  I think I'll take up the shoulder seam in the back by about 1/4", but otherwise no alteration seems necessary.  I have taken this in just a tad -- about 1/2" total -- from the original mockup, taking up 7/8" seams at the sides instead of 5/8".

(Forgive the blurry photo - the product of photographic enterprises embarked on after 9 PM on a dark winter's night!  It shows the shape of the gown well enough, however.)

A somewhat silly view of the front, showing not only the bodice and some idea of the expanse of the skirt, but also the pink, fluffy, polka-dotted socks which my dear friend Rachel gave me last winter, and which have been on my feet more often than not as I work on this dress!  My friends, when you keep the heat in your house at 64 degrees, and you live in a frosty climate, your feet get COLD!

So you take silly pictures to make up for it ;-)

Tomorrow is my last day at home, so I hope to finish the machine construction of the dress -- flat fell the last few seams of the lining, put the outer velvet together, and figure out the net underskirt.  In the intervals of packing for four months away from home.   Yeah.... right.  Well, we can but try!

(A question:  Would you put the netting between the lining and the outer dress, or underneath the lining, i.e. as the innermost layer?  I can't make up my mind.)