Still Sewing

I knew I had sewing homework to complete over the weekend, even with the heat and lack of air conditioning making me feel completely lethargic. The bodice of the 50's dress was almost complete from my last class session. I just had to finish the darts and the sleeve cuffs and then install the sleeves. That was going to be the tricky part, as I have never put sleeves in anything before. It all went off without a hitch, thank goodness. Well, almost. I did scorch the cotton a bit in an over zealous attempt to iron the sleeve caps smooth. Ah, yes, ironing in 100 degree heat is always fun. Here are a few photos of the progress...

Here is the bodice of the dress before I put the darts in.

I pinned all the darts in place and then sewed them - six darts in all. A helpful tip I learned in class is to never back stitch at the point of a dart to finish it. Just switch to a smaller stitch length about a cm from the point and then sew right off the edge.

Last but not least I eased in the sleeves. There's a bit of a fit issue but I am making the smallest size the pattern comes in and it still seems too big for me. I'm just taking it all in as a learning exercise since the dress is not exactly my style anyway.

Here's a close up of the sleeve cap installed. This was my biggest accomplishment for the day. I feel like being able to sew sleeves opens up a whole realm of possibilities for me.