Saturday, January 7, 2012

The Slip Saga Continues...

Brief update on the blue Ruby Slip. She is now cut out, skirt hanging on the dress form.

Some things of interest:
  • Silk charmeuse is not as delicate as it looks. I have washed it, hung it to dry and steam pressed it (yes, with actual water) and it actually looks glossy and hangs nicely. It's not the same as its prewashed self, but growth is good, yes?
  • Bias cut silk charmeuse is its own animal, people. OMG, what a princess! I can tell there's going to be some finagling with the hang.
  • OK, this one is baffling - turns out my new blue lace, scalloped on both edges of the 60" width fabric (also 30 bucks a yard, fyi, and I used almost a yard), has a different motif on one scalloped side than the other?!?!? How can this be. Admittedly, I didn't look at it closely as it was being cut - I never in a million years imagined this might occur. The motifs are complementary (as they would have to be) but the flower pattern is obvs deliberately different. One half of the front of my slip is going to have one motif. The other half will have the other. I'm going to call it an interesting design feature.
  • One other thing about cutting the lace. By the time you get to the lace, the cutting part of this project can be overwhelming. It really is the most tedious element. (I find cutting tedious at the best of times.) This time I decided not to be so matchy-matchy hardcore (obviously). The motif on this lace is airy. I just lay the pieces right next to each other as I cut them. That has to work, by logic, right? Even when you take seam allowances into consideration, there will be alignment. Or not. But it didn't torment me for 90 minutes this time.

5 comments:

  1. I wouldn't have guessed there would be a difference in the scalloped edge lace flower motif per side, but thank you, now I know and will be on the look out for this anomaly if I ever decide to work with lace.

    I'm not sure I understand the last paragraph, what exactly you mean by laying the pieces next to each other as you cut them.

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  2. I'm glad to hear that washing the silk wasn't as worrisome as you had imagined it to be. The not-symmetrical nature of the lace is giving me pause, but if anyone can work with a complication like that, it's you. I'm sure you'll find a way to not only compensate for, but exploit that aspect of the lace.

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  3. Crazy! I will know to look for that, now (wouldn't've occurred to me, either.)

    You are so very, very brave...

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  4. The non-matchng would not have occurred to me either. The nice thing about lace is you can see the pieces and place the lace the way you want it to appear. I know you will find a way that looks stunning.

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  5. Susan: I know! What I mean is, when you lay the pieces on the lace, at the scalloped edge, lay them so that they abut each other. It makes sense when you look at the cutting lay out in the instructions.

    E: I'm strangely nonplussed by the asymmetry!

    T: I LOVE it when people call me brave :-)

    M: Thank you for having faith in me xo

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