April's Dress

April was challenging because, well, we were moving, but our stuff wasn't. So I faced the dilemma of taking up valuable car space with my sewing machine, or coming up with an alternative. Oddly enough, excusing myself from April didn't really cross my mind.

I opted to really stretch myself and sew April's dress by hand. Here is the pattern:

I didn't get started on this until the 20th, so I was worried that 10 days would be insufficient to sew an entire dress by hand, since I wasn't really sure how long that would take. To make matters worse, I was using two fabrics, which meant twice the cutting time and for some things, twice the sewing. Luckily, I didn't really have much else going on in April other than walking to the Post Office once a day and watching TV. I got very good at picking up my sewing every time G was entertained and I got an opportunity.

Things I Learned Doing This Dress:

• It takes almost exactly 10 days to sew a dress by hand. Even though I finished this dress after midnight on the 30th, used pinking sheers to finish the edges, and had a safety pin in the seam the first time I wore it--I'm still counting it.


• Hand sewing is surprisingly strong. I worked really hard to make my stitches small and even and I think I succeeded since it survived multiple Sundays chasing after a small boy.
• I really like midriff bands.

Things I've Never Done Before This Dress:

• This was my first time working with piping. I love it and it saved my stitches since it gave me a nice edge to sew along. In fact, I'm not sure how successful I'd be doing piping on my machine. I'll have to give it a try sometime.
The back view
• I've never put in an invisible zipper before. They were not really that complicated. I was afraid they would be. Oh, and to make things even more complicated, I put in a pocket right next to the zipper, which also was not that complicated thanks to the interweb. I love you interweb. Confession: I have put in a few invisible zippers since April because Johnny prefers them, and since I haven't ever bought a special foot for them, I put them all in by hand. What can I say, hand sewing is somehow more relaxing now. Crazy, anyone?