I sat down last Tuesday to cut out my pattern pieces for the True Bias Colfax, and somehow 4 hours later I was sewing up the hem!

I guess that means that this was a fun make — it was certainly holds the record for the longest time spent in a single stretch!

Things I changed:

• My fabric was pretty sheer so before I got started I interlined each piece. To do this I cut the front bodice, back bodice and yoke pieces out of both the main fabric AND a white cotton. Then I basted the two pieces together with 1/8 seam allowance. For the rest of construction, I treated these pieces as one.
• I didn’t do the hem the way the directions stated. Instead of putting in a huge facing piece, I just hemmed by folding the bottom up 1/2 inch, ironing, and machine stitching. Since there was so much exposed edgestitching on the dress, I thought it looked nice.

Things I learned:

• I learned how to edgestitch (mostly) neatly! I hadn’t ever tried it before and it went swimmingly.
• I made a yoke. I read the directions about a billion times, checked out the sewalong, and then held my breath and followed the directions. To my immense delight, they actually worked. My brain still doesn’t understand, but the proof is in the pudding…or the yoke.
• Self-made bias binding! Look! I am so impressed that I managed this fiddly bit given that I can’t press anything evenly and bias binding requires a lot of pressing. Hooray!
• Professional finishings — I slowed WAY DOWN for this project and I think it shows. This is my most “store-bought” looking me-made garment yet.

What I’ll do differently next time:

• I’m going to try taking in the bust about an inch. It fits fine but gapes a bit more than I would like.
• I’m also going to raise the armscye by a half inch. It feels too open and breezy to wear to work!

That’s the face of a girl who is thrilled she has a new dress 🙂

Have you sewn up the Colfax yet?