Don't Let This Happen To You, Part 2

Before I tell you what happened to me, let me say that I've moved on from hot pink and Butterick to melon and Colette. The Colette Patterns Rooibos dress pattern to be specific. Got it tissue fitted at a friend's house a couple of weeks ago, so all I needed to do was cut it out, and sew.

Some cutting out observations: a couple of commenters said the rotary cutter is the only way to go. I definitely agreed. One of them said definitely use the larger cutter. Since I had one, this time I gave it a try. I didn't love using the larger one, and think I'll save it for the longer, straighter lines. I just felt like I had more control with the smaller one, AND, the blades are cheaper, so that's good.

So, what the monkey happened? I was transferring the marks, and, you guessed it... grabbed the wrong thing, and didn't notice until I peeled back the tissue and said, "what the monkey?" [or something like that].

You see how that could happen, don't you? The handles are plastic, about the same size, and I'm really good, and clearly can mark lines with my eyes closed. Brown. Yellow. Um, not even close. Now, the good news is I have plenty of fabric. But the bad news, is I have just enough to make a skirt. If I cut out a new bodice front piece then the skirt is history. I decided to be resourceful.

I ironed a piece of heavy fusible interfacing to the wrong side and closed up the slits with a satin stitch. Then I did a quick pin fitting with the back bodice piece, and figured out that I can use a 3/4" seam allowance and it will still fit. Maybe fit even better. I didn't take a picture of that. Sorry.

And then, an hour or so later. Don't let this happen to you:

Don't Let This Happen to You

I've admitted it before, but although I've been sewing since there were dinosaurs, I've only put in one invisible zipper. This pink dress (aka the dress that is taking forever, but shouldn't really) has an invisible zipper and I tackled it today. It took way longer than was really necessary.

Try #1: Looked great, but the waistband seams didn't match up very well, and one side didn't seem sewn close enough to the zipper teeth.

Fix: Resew the one side, making sure the teeth were properly in the groove of my zipper foot. Ponder ripping out the other side to make the seams match up better.

OK. I just couldn't stand it, and I ripped it out and redid it. But:

I'm not sure if you can tell in the picture, but the resewn side is twisted, and while it appears to be sewn on correctly, when you get down to the pull you, um, can't close the zipper. There is no fix for this but to rip it out again. First, you must go eat lunch. Walking away helps.

Now it's right. Untwisted and resewn. The moral of this story: When sewing the second side of an invisible zipper, make sure it's flat all the way down and does not get twisted.