Errata

As usual, there are things I would do differently were I to make this dress again. There are also things I think are fine, actually, just executed way too quickly in the final hours before we went dancing.

Naturally the camera focused on the mug in the background.

Like the thread anchoring, which definitely left some to be desired. At least it was a side seam that gave most dramatically.

I'm still so pleased with those edges.

This is the center back, which I semi-fixed before the dance when I noticed it pulling, but it's still unravelling a bit.

All better.

I just ran a new thread up, whipstitched the edges together twice—up to the free edge and down again—and anchored the new thread much more firmly, given the freedom of no looming deadline.

Finally.

I also hemmed the bottom edges of the panels at last. They hadn't frayed too terribly, but they certainly couldn't be left as they were. I pulled a thread in the lining of the front panels and then cut along the line to keep them the same length. The back panels I eyeballed, and probably shouldn't've. One is slightly longer than the other...I may go back and fix it again, or I may leave it as an unlikely thing for anyone to notice when I'm wearing the shirt.

My seams are always kind of a challenge to pick out.

The biggest alteration I needed to make was about the pockets. The pockets I very carefully cut in one with the lining panels, and topstitched neatly, and set in the waistband so they'd lay flat. The pockets that opened from the inside of the skirt.

Sigh.

So, I unpicked the pockets and their topstitching, flipped them, and re-stitched them, leaving an inch or two unstitched at the tops to allow room for the fabric to crease where it needed to switch from the orientation I'd stitched it in the waistband to the new orientation.

I used the highly scientific process of holding the skirt up, feeling through the silk layer for the pocket openings, and finger-creasing the pleats to find the correct bottom point of the skirt slits. Then I put the skirt down for a day to prepare myself mentally for cutting new slits in my beautiful, perfect, amazing skirt.

Dang, I'm white.

It went fine, actually. I pulled up a thread starting at the bottom of the slit, snipped it, and pulled it from the top half of the skirt to give myself a guideline for the cut. After very delicately wriggling my scissors between a few threads, I cut along that pulled line until I had a slit long enough to comfortably put my hand through (half-fisted, because if I'm holding keys or a phone I'll need a little more room to work).

I anchored my thread at one end of the slit, both for ease of hemming and to give me a solid base for a sort of bar tack across the weak point.

This is absolutely the smallest hem I've ever worked.

And very delicately rolled a teeny tiny hem to the inside of the skirt. Yes, I did quadruple check that, thank you very much.

All in all, successful surgery, and the skirt looks exactly the same as it did before, which was the goal. I may never use the pockets much, it being a party dress, but I like having the option. They're a little hard to find, actually—the topstitched lining isn't much to feel for as a texture—but still perfectly suited to holding my phone/keys/other relevant bits when I don't want to have a purse.

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