Diary of a shirt dress: Days 7&8

It's Wednesday and I actually have some evening time to use on the dress. It might seem it's not much left on it, and piece-wise it's true, but it's mostly pieces that require a bit of attention to detail.

Today I worked on the button panel running down the center front. I didn't have enough of the same fabric to make the right and left panels, so I only have the right panel (the one that'll be on top) cut out of the main fabric, while the left panel is cut out of the same green cotton sateen I used for the inner waistband. Well, it'll be mostly invisible anyway. I interfaced both.

But oh no! The right panel isn't long enough! Improvise...improvise! OK! A piece from another part of the main fabric will have to do. I measure this out, cut it and interface it. This one goes on the bottom, the planned bit goes from the neckline as far down as it reaches and I stitch both in place. Then I fold the bottom bit to make my panel piece, then fold the seam allowance to wrong side, and top stitch the edge catching the inner part. I also top stitch the folded edge.

At the place where the planned panel meets the unplanned little one, I fold the planned one in a triangular shape much like a tower placket. At least this way people might think it's a design feature 😄! Then I fold the planned panel in half, press the inner seam allowances to inside and also top stitch the inner part in place. But here I also top stitch down the triangle side and up again on the folded side in a continuous line, again...to strengthen the illusion of a design feature.

The left side panel is long enough as is, so this is simpler. Just sew it as normal.

Next it's the collar stand. I'm unsure how this will behave if I only interface the outer one, so I do both. Then sew it as normal: Sew them right sides together along the top and sides, turn right side out and press, then sew the outer bottom seam to the neckline, fold the seam allowances of the inside stand to wrong side, pin in place and top stitch from the right side.

I've considered out of laziness, dislike of buttonhole making and lack of matching buttons in my stash to go buy some snaps. But got lazy even for that especially that I didn't have much time to spare on trips to the fabric store, and ended up biting the bullet and making those detested button holes. I made those from the collar to the waistband on Wednesday.

I decided to use large crystal beads for buttons, and Thursday started with me sewing these for the buttonholes I made yesterday.

Now I could close the dress around the waist and decide on the length. And hem the dress. Then do the remaining buttonholes below the waistband. This added up to 21 buttonholes in total 😬. Did I sew the remaining buttons (and move the waistband button as this ended up off the correct place)? Of course not. I packed buttons, thread and needle together with the dress. I'll do that in Italy...