Red Dress Finished

While in California last week I finished the dress. I don't mind doing hand work, in fact, I rather enjoy it, so I hand picked the under stitching to the neck seam allowance. 

Not quite a perfect neckline, but I'm getting better at it.

Then I realized that I wanted bias strips for the hems but didn't have a ruler with markings on it, as it's packed away in the storage unit. So I thought and thought, looked at the fabric carefully, and realized that the white dots are perfectly aligned on the grain, which means that they are also perfectly aligned on the bias. You can see this in the photo of the scrap, just follow the 45º line on the mat. So I was able to align a clear piece of plastic (actually, the sewing machine extension), and cut along the dots at a 45º angle, to give the bias as shown in the top strip.

I sewed the bias to the hem, pressed it under so the seam was on the inside ever so slightly, and hand picked the hem.

This photo shows both the dress and the lining hems. I turned the lining hem so the right side showed against the right side of the lining, for just a bit of a fun touch.

Yes, the dress looks somewhat huge on the form, but that's because I haven't adjusted it for the 18 pounds I've gained. It's definitely diet and exercise time.

You can see the empty shelves in the background, almost everything is packed away. I feel somewhat lost without all my sewing things.

The photos of me in the dress were terrible! So I won't post any photos until I can get better ones taken.