I will spare you the photos

Beautifully finished with a double zig zag*

After sewing so many toiles of my dress I finally felt ready to sew my real fabric. I don't know why but I was terrified of that fabric. I have already (successfully) sewn more expensive fabrics, more slippery fabrics, fabrics that where more prone to fraying and any other hardship you might think of. But this fabric truly scared me.

Quiz question: How much fun is turning a corner with this fabric? I actually poked  a n 8 mm knitting needle right through several times. How can this even happen with such a tight weave?

So after psyching myself up with all those toiles I told myself to get a grip and just cut into the cloth already. And so I made lots of notches and hand basted all my seams (even the straight ones), tried out the best tension settings and stitch length on a scrap piece of fabric. Then I decided that sewing the lining first really wouldn't be procrastinating. 

One of my favourite seam finishes: Fold and stitch. In this case a zig zag stitch on the lining seams.

When I finally started sewing I was still afraid. And there was this nagging doubt that things would work out as nicely as in the muslins. But I kept sewing anyway. And then I tried the dress on. And quelle horreur! It has stress lines in places none of my muslins or the lining had them. And a ripply zip fastner! The zip was fine on just the lining and I had a notch every 5 cm to match up my seams. And for some reason you can see the facing peeking out in some parts!

No rippling when  lying flat. Also: This fabric can only be sewn once and I had already started unpicking here. Hence the pulled treads.

As fate would have it I all that procrastinating meant that I had to wear the dress out ripply zip and all. I had a great night and I got a lot of compliments on the dresses colour and cut and even more for being able to sew something like that. But I felt like Everyone was staring at my back and the ripply horrors there!

Couldn't they have noticed my perfect rolled hem instead? Both from the wrong side.

And the right. Isn't the fabric beautiful? Even  though the colours are of ...

The question remains: What am I going to do with the back. I have a feeling that a cool pin tuck design might help. But if it doesn't I'll have completely ruined the fabric.

Butterfly

*Once again sorry for the bad picture quality. I couldn't find the cable for my camera so I took all the pictures again with my phone.

It started with an IGP ...

... and ended with every sewaholics nightmare: a wounded sewing machine! Is it just a scratch? Will it heal by itself? Or could it be the end?

This is my baby <3

It most probably won't heal by itself. It will need some surgery. And out comes the one big problem with the Brother i20 LE. You can't just do the surgery. The problem is that the little "bed" for the bobbin has shiftet about 3 cm. Therefore you can't sew any more. If you wanted to put everything bak where it's supposed to go you'd have to undo two screws. But the screwdrivers that come with the machine are to long and the arm  hangs far to deep. Therefore I'd need to buy a really short screwdriver. But I don't have the funds to buy one right now. Therefore my baby has to stay in it's sickbed for a while.

This is the luggage my baby brought. Notice the screwdrivers?

Until then it will be no sewing and a lot of grumbling for me. On the bright side: I can perfect my new sloper! I had my little sister measure me the day before yesterday and made slopers with those measurements.  Everything but a trouser sloper as I  dissected my favourite pants for that. Unfortunately the measurements don't seem to be correct. Somehow my total bust, hip and waist measurements turned out 10 to 17 cm to large. How did that happen? So anyway I'm back to taking measurements (by myself).