Attempt at Cocktail Dress: lining, under stitch, and edge stitch

They do not make these things with my raptor hips in mind.


That being said, most of the construction went pretty smoothly, though I can almost guarantee I will not use a spandex as a lining ever again. It is the devil's material. It's like trying to wrangle with a really limp snake that's been dunked in a vat of vaseline and then doused with a can of WD-40. Pressing (ironing) edges becomes nigh impossible, and shearing is like my own personal Hell. As a larger raptor, I've come to really dislike satin linings. As classy as satin may be, there is absolutely no stretch, and it usually just ends up balling up or pooching out from the outer fabric. So when picking out a lining material I wanted to go with something soft, but stretchy. I found a really cute floral spandex/lycra/thing (I didn't think to read the bail as I bought the fabric, so it will forever be unknown), and didn't realize that it would become the fabric of my little raptor nightmares. To be honest, I wouldn't have even done a lining, but it occurred to me halfway through the directions (at the exact half when the directions addressed a lining to be precise) that it's possible to ignore the lining directions and just hem edges…but as of yet I couldn't figure out how that would work with the seam allowances I had been given. See, if you use a lining, that means that u can do a 1/4" seam allowance, which is just easier and nicer to work with stitching-wise. Otherwise, you'd have to half your seam allowance, so only fold over 1/8" and try and stitch that with the machine. I, am not that good at stitching. My lines still look like a drunk toddler hijacked the sewing machine and tried to show off to his drunk baby friends. "Look ma, no hands!" So I opted for the lining.


As for the outer fabric, I'm a little upset. I had this really gorgeous pink-backed dark denim that showed a little hint of pink when it stretched, and I was super excited…because it stretched. Nothing is a bloodthirsty dinosaur's best friend like some stretchy fabric. But alas, my ignorance as to 'aligning the grain' (still don't know how the hell to do that) meant that the stretch of my fabric essentially became obsolete, thus the hips. I plan on researching the grain thing pronto.


Something particular that came up during this pattern though was the idea of the 'understitch'. An understitch is a method used to flatten sewn edges. I (being the ignoramus that I am) had no idea what an understitch was, and tried various google searches to find a description that my little raptor brain could actually understand before I gave up and called my mom in defeat. So my mom found a Youtube video. Basically, after you've made a seam, sometimes when you pop the fabric right-side-out it will bubble instead of laying flat. In order to get it to lay flat, you take the extra material that is the result of the seam allowance, lay it to one side (typically the side that would be the lining, or less important fabric), and lay down another line of stitching as close to the initial stitch line as possible. If that explanation makes no sense, here's the video my mom found that I found more helpful than any other description: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRtA6_2QiPE


But the way the pattern works (you can see it for yourself here: http://butterick.mccall.com/b5601-products-13743.php?page_id=155) for the shoulder, you're essentially creating a tube, and while understitching is grand, it is nigh impossible in tube form because towards the middle of the tube, its hard to stitch down the seam allowance fabric without catching the other side of the tube in there too. Thus I learned about a lovely little thing called the 'edgestitch' (aka 'topstitch'). The edgestitch performs the same function as the understitch, but it's just a little more visible because instead of stitching between the layers to tack down the seam allowance, you are pressing down the entire seam from the right side of the fabric, and sewing through all of the layers. Again, if that just made you more confused, here's a good video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtV_oVxh0pA


After trying on the dress right before adding the zipper and the button and closing everything up, and realizing that there was NO way that physics would allow my thighs to remain in the dress, I essentially lost motivation. I'll probably still finish up the dress and just try to sell it on T-Rexbay or something, but I'll work on other projects first. I'll post a photo when I finish


**UPDATE** After having one of my cave-mates try on the dress, it occurred to me that I still have enough material that I could just redo the skirt part, just a little bigger, and stitch the skirt higher up the bodice to hit my actual waist! THERE MAY BE HOPE YET! …though undoing all of that stitching is going to be no picnic.