I put my toe in...

Well I dipped my toes back into the sewing pool...

The Menswear Lace Dress has been hanging and patiently waiting its turn since January 22nd. Y'know back when we all agreed that those decidedly unattractive sleeves sucked. At the time I received some great suggestions on how I could fix the sleeves and I was very intrigued with the possibilities.

But you know how it is, something hangs around long enough and it is no longer intriguing it is just something hanging over your head waiting to be finished. So I kept looking at it yesterday evening and it really started to bug me...because the dress is basically finished. It is just lounging around not pulling its weight in my closet and I needed something new to wear.

The weather was suppose to be decent today (in the mid to upper 50's) and I really want to wear some dresses before the next artic wind blows through so this dress had to come off the wall! The fastest and easiest solution was to dump the sleeves...so that's what I did! They weren't working and I didn't want to lose the dress to more hang time, so I serged the lining and fashion fabric together, turned them down 5/8", pressed and topstitched.

Wow! The dress was getting closer to wearable by the minute! Some hemtape to finish off the hemline, a couple of hand stitches to secure the lining to the vent and four hours and two TV movies after I got the bright idea to finish the dress, I was stitching the hem down by hand.

So this is how I looked after 13 hours of wearing it!

Not bad right?! One more of the front pleat:

Let me give you a few stats:

Pattern:

TNT Dress Pattern

Fabric:

Tropical wool blend menswear plaid from Metro Textiles & brown lace from Fabric Mart, lining fabric from stash

Notions:

22" taupe zipper

Rayon Hem tape

I made this one exactly like the grey version that I made earlier this year. The difference is the lace panel on the front. The panel was made by cutting a piece of lace slightly larger than the pleat. Then I tucked the lace under the pleat prior to sewing the pleat down. I used a triple stretch stitch to secure it and to allow the topstitching to show through. Though I think no one noticed the topstitching but me! At the bottom of the dress where the pleat falls open, I cut the lace close to the seam and left it alone...lace being lace, it doesn't need any finishing.

I wore it all day and the only thing I noticed was that the lining was sticking to my pantyhose...not something I would have been aware of during construction and nothing that a little Static Guard couldn't cure. Otherwise, it was a perfectly comfortable dress. Especially since I spent most of the afternoon bending and stretching as I located and moved files.

Now that I've finished a UFO, and gotten my toes wet, maybe I will sew something else! Stay Tuned because there is alot of fabric inspiration winging its way to me...hopefully something will beg me to morph it from its original shape into something new!