Gala Gown: Finishing Up!

My mom and I spent a few hours on Saturday working on the hem.  On went the dress, in went the pins, off came the dress, off came the extra fabric, and back on went the dress . . .

Here is what was cut off.  In some places I removed six and a half inches, and in one scary spot, I only removed half an inch.  Crazy bias!

I decided to go with a rolled hem for a couple of reasons.  First off, the flare of the skirt is so extreme, that a hem with over an inch of fold was going to require a ton of steam to shrink down all the excess.  And that probably would have required at least one more try one and marking step with mom.  

This way, I just cut an inch down from floor length, ran a machine stitch along the edge for reference, and sewed a rolled hem.   All that hand sewing is actually relaxing for me at this point.

The beaded hair pieces (which will help keep the hood in place) needed a few finishing touches.

Finally, the skirt required a press after all the handling, and was then hung on the back of the sewing room door to wait for her debut.