Sewing Sunday is something my friend Amy and I have been intending to make into a weekly event for ages and ages, but we’ve never been able to pull it off consistently. It seems like the more determined I am to absolutely without fail spend a Sunday at my sewing machine, the more likely it is that something will come up to stop me.
But this week I succeeded in making Sewing Sunday a priority and it was perfectly lovely. I cut out the Wiksten Dress in three different fabrics, two for me and one for my sister Carrie.
The nice thing about Wiksten patterns is that they come with a step-by-step tutorial, which is the next best thing to have the designer herself standing right beside you making encouraging noises. This particular pattern is for beginners. It’s nice, because you don’t need any notions and there are no buttons or zippers to complicate things.
Amy taught me to transfer patterns to freezer paper, rather than cutting out the pre-printed pattern, in case I want to make another version later in a different size.
Cutting is the scariest part of sewing for me. I kind of got over that today by cutting out the pieces for three dresses in a row. By the time I got to number three, I was speeding right along.
I was doing just fine until it came time for the top stitched hem. I had never done a hem with curves before and I got really frustrated before I realized that there is a trick to it. Lucky for me, my good friend Youtube had plenty of tutorials.
After dinner, I will tackle the hem, so all that’s left to do is to put the bias tape around the sleeve and neck openings. Hopefully I will have time to get at least one finished before next Sewing Sunday!
