day eighty: it got late last night…
I got the second sleeve done last night. It even matches the first one — look!
yes. they do look like spats.
I finished the seams on the gusset differently from the seams going down the underside of the sleeve. The seam allowances of the sleeve itself were turned once, to a depth of 1/2 inch, and hemmed down with a felling stitch, and then the seam was closed with a closely set overstitch.
Before this, however, I sewed in the gusset. I sewed the gusset square to the shoulder end of the sleeve with a running stitch and a 1/2 inch seam allowance, stopping 1/2 inch before the bottom of the gusset. Then I sewed the other side of the sleeve to the bottom edge of the gusset. (I swear this makes sense.)
does this make sense? i hope this makes sense
All that happened last night. Today I started sewing on the gores. I tossed the tunic body over my head and marked my waist with chalk. Amazingly, it was in almost the same place on each side — within 1/2 an inch. I was shocked.
The rest -- thus far -- has been pretty simple. I marked 1/2 inch seam allowances on two of the four gores and sewed one to each side of the front of the body panel. My next step is (deep breath) cutting slits center front and back to set those gores. The very thought is so nerve-wracking, I can't even tell you.
1 have an idea about how to do this. I'll tell you all about it if it works. If not, this conversation never happened. Stay tuned.
So here’s what I did. I found the waistline by measuring from the top of the left gore across to the top of the right and marking a horizontal line with chalk vaguely in the middle. I found the center point and drew a line vertically from there to the bottom edge, then drew lines 1/2 inch to either side of that center line.
I marked one of the remaining gores with stitch lines on the wrong side, 1/2” from the edge, and without cutting the center line, stitched it 1/2” off center.
i forgot to take a picture before i sewed the gore down, but here you can see two of the three lines
Then I pinned the seam allowance of the gore out of the way and cut the center line open.
Finally, I flipped the gore so it was to the inside of the body panel, pulled the tip of the gore inside, and clipped the seam allowances together. I sewed it from tip to hem, pressed the seam allowances away from the gore, and reinforced the tip of the gore with some knotted buttonhole stitch.
nice and tidy
All that remains is felling down these seam allowances, setting the center back gore, putting in the sleeves, and sewing up the sides. Really shouldn’t take that long — I expect to be done around Christmas. I’m going to try to get my coat cut so I can work on that over the holiday.
Time to get this ready for next steps, then head to my mom’s. Night, y’all.