Finishing the Haslam Project

This is the last of these in progress posts, I promise!  Then, there is the issue of getting through the pictures of me wearing the dress, which I am afraid will take far longer than I want.  But I will get there in the end!

I always underestimate the amount of time required to finish one of these involved projects.  Of course, it helps to get some of the moving parts finished before they are actually needed.  Case in point . . . shoulder pads.

I didn't want too much bulk through the shoulder, so I only used a few layers of cotton batting.  And then all I needed to do was cover the batting with pieces of my fashion fabric.

Even though I thought I had added at least three extra inches to the skirt length, I only turned up 1 3/8" for the hem.

But once I put the dress on with my heels, I decided I wanted the dress to be slightly longer.  I really wish that the hem was deeper, but it works.

The final thing to do was add a waist stay.  I even had a length of petersham ribbon that matched my fabric perfectly!

The stay makes it impossible for any pulling at the waistline since it is slightly smaller than the circumference of the dress waistline.  Since my closure is a row of buttons, this is especially important.

Here you can see how the stay works within the garment.

And then all those bits of basting thread need to be removed (at least, the visible ones).  I will admit that I don't often remove any basting so long as it is within the seam allowances and will not be seen by anyone other than myself.

And that means the garment is complete!

It's been a fun journey.  Does it make me want to start drafting sewing patterns from scratch?  No!  But it was a good test of my sewing knowledge, and I am pleased with the finished results, so overall, I am calling this a successful experiment.