Dearest NeedleworkMonday friends!
1 (I'm numbering the posts, to help navigate, relating to the text)
Following on from my 'completed' apron-dress project - which I shared in a post here a few weeks ago, this is me revisiting it, because it was not as perfect as I require it to be, to make me want to wear it every day.
2
I was just responding to Kesityu Fashion's queries in her beautiful post today, around when we write our Hive posts, and I had felt that I might not be able to make a post today, because I'm tangled up in the readjusting of readjustments (!) - and felt overwhelm after drinking wine and playing cards excessively yesterday in the old man's bar...
3
But this all spurred me on, to share from the immersion-in-the-creative-process - which is something I'm very comfortable doing in my painting practise - but which I've been hesitating from doing with my sewing... I'm on such a steep learning curve in my needlework, and am not yet terribly confident in my own authority to speak about the process.
4
Kind of ridiculous, as this is just a brain-burp or loophole which my ego is twirling me in. Once I write/ speak it out/ express the feeling of stuckness, it is dissolved - and I can get on with the step-by-step process of fixing the garment!
5
Part of what blocks me in my steep climb into mastery in any discipline - and perhaps moreso in sewing clothing, as it is such an intimate relation to the body and to self-expression - is feeling like I'm making no progress. Again, such a loophole in the psyche!! If I am afraid of not making progress, and then slow down and stop, then I am not making progress. What a chump! Self-defeating has a lot of power, until we speak it out and show it up for what it is: non-sense!
6
So here are some notes on my glacial-y-slow progress: the snaps above show details of the apron-dress, which I have multiple changes I want to make with. The first thing most bothering me about it was the elasticated waistband at the back, pictured at the top of this post (1), and in pics numbers 4 and 5: the original waistband that I created by folding over the top border and sewing it in place, then running a thick piece of elastic through, was too clumpy and unprofessional-looking. I sewed along top and bottom edges - which I had JUST enough space to do - and gave the whole structure of the waistband more substance. It was quite hard to do this: I love challenging tasks in sewing; they help me gain skills in my hands. I had to stretch each small section as I moved along the waistband - so as not to bunch up the edges and/ or sew it to the elastic - which would subsequently rip once I stretch it over my hips.
7
There were other elements very wrong (or rather, very less-right!) in the 'completed' garment: the fabric was too thin in every part but the bib! Both the black silk apron I'd built up from and the back skirt of white cotton are VERY delicate, and too see-through to have any opposite-coloured fabric worn underneath: meaning I'd have to add layers to both front and back - unless I had a pair of leggings which were black at the front and white at the back, to wear underneath it - hehe! In photo 7 above, you can see the second black silk apron which I am going to try and cut & sew together, to back the front skirt...
8
This is a reminder of how the front skirt looks, in the above photo (8).
9
Oh, and lots wrong with this part; the back straps. You can also see in photo number 2 as well as the photos above and below here (9 and 10) - the place where the strap attached was not pulling the waistband up correctly: it distorted the waistband. Now that the waistband has this nice black stitching reinforcement, this partially corrects the issue, but it needed a more correct positioning of the bottom of the black section of the back-strap.
10
...Which I had to make other corrections to also! The whole structure was off: as excited as I was to have created a spontaneous strap from the old edges of a sheet and the left-over belt from the original black silk apron, it didn't hold neatly like I need it to - and so was not calling me to wear it. I only like wearing clothes nowadays that call me - which I am passionate about putting on!
11
Finally, this is the big sheet/ duvet cover type of thing, which is going to back the back skirt of the apron-dress. It is just the right weight and shade of white, to fit with the other cottons incorporated into the garment. This was quite a difficult element of the task too; finding the right shades and weights of cotton or silk for each area - vintage fabrics can be very different shades of white or heaviness, because of how much they've been used. And a modern white fabric would have a completely different feel (and yes, 
6 (again)
Oh, and to add: number 6 photo is another old tiny (I think, child's) apron, which I am cutting the bib off-of, to add as a structural correction, for the bottom of the black strap on the back: I think! As you can tell by my non-linear post, I do not think linearly: in fact, to make a conventional, chronological-ordered post, is a huge strain and much harder work than letting it come naturally - so this is an attempt to find a happy medium, hahah! Please do just ask, if you have any Qs about what I'm doing!
Much, much love to you all in your beautiful projects and garments - happy NeedleworkMonday to you!
