Underskirt completed

Last night I finished assembling the underskirt for the Susan dress. I got the fabric from www.fabric.com, my FAVORITE online fabric store. I chose Ravissant Duchess Satin Ruby Red because it was the closest color to what I wanted. It is not lining fabric, so it is quite heavier than I'd like, except ... it is so luxurious! It just feels like a much higher quality than I would get at JoAnn, even though it cost the same. I have enough fabric left over (it was VERY wide) to make a shorter dress out of it.

I'm actually glad that it's so heavy because the overdress splits along the front two seams just about up to the waist, revealing the underskirt. The heaviness of the fabric should help the underskirt stay in place.


Tonight I started laying out the patterns for the overdress, which is the same pattern as the underdress (Simplicity 4940.) I am using Toscana Velveteen Red for that, and pardon my language, but it's in contention for the biggest bitch of a fabric that I've ever worked with. It bunches up, it is difficult to cut cleanly, and it's just a heavy, heavy fabric that is difficult to maneuver.

Thus, I made a very bad decision tonight: I decided to make the front panel on the fold and then cut it out so I could unfold the fabric and put the two ends together (so that there would be selvages on both sides.) I had to do this because the side panels are very wide at the bottom of the skirt, and wouldn't fit.

However, I didn't stop to think that it's velvet. Velvet crushes a certain way. It has to smooth down, so I can't lay out the fabric in the normal way, which would be to have the top of one panel at the top of the fabric, then turn the next panel around so that the skirt is at the top of the fabric, thus using as much as possible.

So, I cut out the front panel and then opened up the fabric, only to discover - I didn't have as much as I thought I did. I only have room to do the sleeves and two more panels, when there are three left.

Check it out - I just need a little more. So now I have to figure out exactly how many more yards I need to order from Fabric.com. This puts a wrench in things, because I prefer to assemble things in one step, not do five panels and sit around waiting to put in the last two. I was hoping to have this assembled tonight. And we'll be busy preparing for vacation next week. Argh!

I've never before cut out pieces without checking to make sure that every single piece fit on there the way that I wanted. I wish I'd realized that this was velvet before I made that first cut, because if I'd thought it out better, I would have had enough left for all the pieces.

Oh well, maybe I can make some pillows out of the remaining velvet. That will get relegated to the "projects I'll finish someday" pile in the sewing room!