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Sleeves, Collars, Trim and Woes

Time to attach sleeves and collar—and the only remaining work will be gathering and attaching the skirt.

An arc of white linen, with a line of stitching about half an inch from the upper cut edge, pinned to green-gold sheer silk and funneling down to a tube of green-gold silk with gold embroidery.
This is where everything starts to look like a very expensive blob for a while.
To make this simpler, I might have waited to seam the sleeves until after I'd attached them to the bodice, but really, sleeves are fiddly creatures no matter what you do, and this way involved far fewer raw edges left flapping around.

A white piece of linen with a curved upper edge, stitched in two overlapping lines to green-gold silk.
I decided it wouldn't hurt to leave the basting stitches right where they were.
Teeny backstitch to attach the sleeves. I do prefer a whipstitch, but my edges weren't quite precise enough to hide the lining. This also saved me pulling out my basting stitches and trying to maintain the nice sleevehead curve when I folded the excess fabric in.

A curved flat-felled seam in white linen, pinned down ready to be finished.
Flat felling! Shocking, I know.
Extra seam security (and extra pin pricks) in the form of flat-felling the sleeve lining to the bodice lining. I worry about shoulder seams more than they probably deserve, but they are consistently the seams that get the most wear and tear from me. It's not paranoia if your seams are actually tearing out, or something.

A close-up of finishing a flat-felled seam in white linen with tan thread.
This is some kind of whip/slip stitch hybrid...
Not the laziest seam finish I've ever done, but certainly not the neatest, either.

A green-gold silk bodice with long, pendant sleeves lined in peach silk, with gold floral embroidery around the sleeve hems and upper arms. There's no neck opening, and the sides of the bodice are clearly open, showing flashes of the white linen lining.
Okay, so maybe grainlines matter a little bit. Some of the color shift is the lining showing through.
Ta-da!! Now it looks like something real. Still can't try it on—no cutting the neckline until the collar embroidery is completely attached—but all the pieces are fitting together properly.

A crumpled mass of green-gold silk with bands of gold floral embroidery on a dark wood table, with a white linen square showing the backside of gold embroidery tracing the shape of a round keyhole neckline, pinned flat in the center of the green-gold fabric.
The cats were very polite about going around my workspace.
Trying to flatten a bodice that's already mostly sewn together and with sleeves on while placing a collar exactly where it belongs is not on my list of favorite activities. I did manage it, though, and the neck opening is exactly where I wanted it and it only took a blood sacrifice and the promise of a favor to be collected at some future date.
White linen showing the backside of gold embroidery, with lots of knots and frayed thread ends, and a tiny line of tan stitching outlining the just-visible curve of a round keyhole neckline at the bottom of the photo, and continuing down both sides of the neck slit.
Tiny stab stitches again.
I stitched very carefully right at the inner edge of the embroidery, around the neck opening and at both edges of the slit. Note to self, and to anyone planning to attempt this: leave more room between the edges of the slit. More than that. A little more. Two threads on either side is not enough fabric for the clever treat-the-collar-like-a-facing trick to work, and you will have to top stitch everythin gto keep it intact and in place.

White linen showing the backside of gold embroidery, with lots of knots and frayed thread ends, and a tiny line of tan stitching outlining a round keyhole neckline, and continuing down both sides of the neck slit. A pair of silver sewing shears erupt into the photo from the right edge, and there's a small vertical slit cut into the linen from the center of the neckline toward the slit.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAA
And then. I cut into the fabric. It was absolutely terrifying; I've never tried this process before, and I didn't have enough fabric to try again if I'd gotten something wrong (say, attached the embroidered piece to the dress with the wrong sides facing, something I do routinely with sleeves). Also, there was a pin trapped between the layers that I wasn't sure I'd be able to remove without some delicate fabric surgery. (Pro-tip: check for pins before you finish creating a hermetically sealed section of dress.)

A close-up of silver sewing shears cutting the slit of a keyhole neckline through white linen with the wrong side of gold embroidery. The blades are nearly shut, and nearly at the point of the slit.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
I mentioned that two threads on either side of the slit wasn't enough to anchor the stitching, right? This is about when I realized that. TOO LATE TO STOP NOW, JUST GOTTA KEEP CHUGGING. (No, actually, I didn't have a drink after this, but I was sorely tempted.)

I tried turning the collar once I'd cut the necessary bits, then realized I'd need to clip the seam allowance around the opening to give everything enough ease to lie flat and behave itself. So I put it all back where it came from.

A clipped seam allowance, showing white linen and the back of gold embroidery on the top and green-gold silk below, with the little tabs of seam allowance flaring out to show the many layers at the seam.
Do you hear that muffled whimpering?
I probably snipped every three-quarter-inch or so, nearly nicking the seam a few times (what a good thing I didn't have that drink, eh?), and turned everything right side out again.

A wodge of white fabric with the backside of gold embroidery, erupting from a small slit in green-gold silk, with a crumpled mass of green-gold silk decorated with bands of gold floral embroidery in the background.
It's...it's...aliVE!!
Okay, so this photo is from earlier in the process (I was checking that the collar would end up facing the right way before I really hit the point of no return), but it's still very much what it looks like when you flip a wide collar from the inside to the outside of a garment.

No photos of reinforcing the edges of the slit (I was busy trying to make my heart beat quieter so it wouldn't shake threads free), which was just a teeny whipstitch to catch a little more fabric into the seam and make it able to stand being worn.

A round keyhole neckline trimmed with gold floral embroidery on brown silk, on a green-gold silk bodice with white linen lining. the lower point of the collar trim is turned under just at the edge of the lining and pinned, and the excess brown fabric is trimmed away from the side of the neckline and flipped back, showing the white lining.
You know that track from Interstellar titled "No Time for Caution"? Yeah, this is the exact opposite of that track.
With the collar flipped and the slit edges stabilized, I trimmed down the excess fabric at the edges of the embroidery, tucking them under and pinning as I went. Once again, photography fell to the wayside in favor of slip stitching the edges very firmly in place, and getting the last of the pins out of the garment before I folded it up to pack away.

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