{"id":19846,"date":"2011-12-05T00:10:45","date_gmt":"2011-12-05T05:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/?p=19846"},"modified":"2013-02-01T21:40:07","modified_gmt":"2013-02-02T02:40:07","slug":"christmas-dresssleeve-tip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/05\/christmas-dresssleeve-tip\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Dress~Sleeve Tip"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Having just returned from North Carolina last night, I’ve hardly unpacked.\u00c2\u00a0 But the exquisite Stetson Christmas Candlelight Concert was this afternoon, so that took priority over properly settling in at home.\u00c2\u00a0 Last night I pulled a long session in the sewing room finishing up Laurel’s dress so she could wear it for this, the first Christmas-dress-worthy event of the holiday season.<\/p>\n

She looked as sweet as any Christmas treat, though I am not completely happy with the dress.\u00c2\u00a0 For a rather small 7 year-old, her Sarah Howard Stone collar<\/a> is rather large, even though I reduced the size considerably.\u00c2\u00a0 After putting the dress, collar and sash all together, I really think I need to put lace on the sleeves.\u00c2\u00a0 There just wasn’t time before we left for the concert but I’ll tend to that this week.<\/p>\n

The ivory ribbon sash is an especially lovely 1-1\/2″ wide antique silk which my friend Suzanne Sawko shared with me.\u00c2\u00a0 It is not as stiff as grosgrain and has no apparent “grain,” though it doesn’t roll at the waist.\u00c2\u00a0 It almost reminds me of a heavy organdy.<\/p>\n

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The dress was made from Ginger Snaps’<\/a> Lace Dress<\/strong><\/em> pattern.\u00c2\u00a0 It is a slightly raised (1-1\/2″ above waist) yoke dress with several collar options and skirt variations.\u00c2\u00a0 Though I had never used it, I foolishly thought my years of experience made it unnecessary to read the directions.<\/p>\n

Every pattern Nancy Coburn does is excellent.\u00c2\u00a0 Though she gives clear, concise basic directions, she always has some special tips that make the price of the pattern a bargain.\u00c2\u00a0 That is just one reason I use Ginger Snaps patterns. But this time, I missed a very good\u00c2\u00a0 tip that would have made the dress so much nicer.<\/p>\n

I was trying to construct this garment while we were at our cabin in NC.\u00c2\u00a0 Sewing away from my sewing room always makes me feel like a duck out of water.\u00c2\u00a0 I try to get fabric, pattern, etc. all organized but invariably I forget something or change the design and need something I haven’t brought along.<\/p>\n

For this dress, I had cut out the sleeves and bodice at home and was ready to sew at the cabin once I got set up.\u00c2\u00a0 So I just gathered up\u00c2\u00a0 the sleeve cap and set it in.\u00c2\u00a0 The velveteen, in my opinion, is too bulky to French seam.\u00c2\u00a0 Without my serger, I had to use an overcast stitch on my sewing machine –not nearly as nice.\u00c2\u00a0 I had taken a smaller, lighter sewing machine to the cabin and regretted that.\u00c2\u00a0 I wished I had brought along my Brother Duetta or ULT 2003D. Each comes with an attachment called the side cutter which does a great job as a mini serger.<\/p>\n

After dealing with all the messy velveteen fuzzies and moving on to the next step, I did glance at the pattern and spotted a tip that was new to me.\u00c2\u00a0 Nancy suggested that for a collar dress, the sleeves have no gathers near the shoulder seam.<\/p>\n

This may be common knowledge to the rest of the sewing world but it was news to me—sensible, why-didn’t-I-think-of-that? kind of news.\u00c2\u00a0 But at that point in time, I wasn’t up to removing the sleeves and starting over.<\/p>\n

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Her directions and illustrations for the back lap are the best I have ever seen.\u00c2\u00a0 Can you tell I love this pattern?\u00c2\u00a0 For Laurel’s Easter dress, I think I am going to make the lace dress as shown on the pattern cover.<\/p>\n

FYI, I met Nancy about a hundred years ago when I was teaching at one of the earliest Martha Pullen schools, in the little blue house on Madison.\u00c2\u00a0 But I have never seen Nancy again and have no other affiliation with her.\u00c2\u00a0 This is a recommendation straight from the heart.<\/p>\n

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The concert was so beautiful that I had goosebumps most of the time.\u00c2\u00a0 Stetson’s School of Music is nationally recognized for its excellence and attracts the most talented students.\u00c2\u00a0 The select Concert Choir is the best of the best, filling 114 year old Elizabeth Chapel Hall with heavenly music. The acoustics are on a par with the music program.<\/p>\n

Many, many years ago, I was awarded my master’s degree on that very stage.\u00c2\u00a0 There was music in my heart that day, but it couldn’t compare to the music on the stage today.<\/p>\n

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Elizabeth Hall, built in 1887<\/p><\/div>\n

Laurel was as equally moved by the concert.\u00c2\u00a0 She often nudged me with wide eyes, indicating her delight.\u00c2\u00a0 We arrived a full hour before the 1-1\/2 hour performance in order to get a seat where she could see.\u00c2\u00a0 She waited contentedly with her knitting project and was perfectly behaved the entire time.\u00c2\u00a0 How blessed I am to have this precious child to share experiences such as this.<\/p>\n

So what special Christmas events to you have coming up?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having just returned from North Carolina last night, I’ve hardly unpacked.\u00c2\u00a0 But the exquisite Stetson Christmas Candlelight Concert was this afternoon, so that took priority over properly settling in at home.\u00c2\u00a0 Last night I pulled a long session in the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":19848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,8,28,43,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19846"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19846"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25810,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19846\/revisions\/25810"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}