Deadlines

The Sewing Lawyer has been known to sew to a deadline - many times in fact.  However, it is probably not such a great thing to be sewing on buttons a mere 60 minutes before one has to appear appropriately attired at a professional event involving la crème de la crème of Canada's legal community.  Which is exactly what happened yesterday.

It got done, but there were some tense moments.  And (if truth be told) the lining wasn't properly hemmed before the dress made its début.  Yikes!

As it was worn.

SCC Law Clerks Reunion - with the Chief Justice of Canada

What's that you say?  This is a sewing blog and you can hardly see any details?

OK then.  Here's a better photo taken today, after the lining was hemmed and a couple of other little details were taken care of so it is really finished.  

The back fits well. In the end I took in the CB seam above the waist for a better fit for my narrow back. Notice that I added a bit more fabric to the back of the armscye opening below the cap sleeve.  I also lengthened the sleeve about 1.5cm.  As usual, this type of sleeve doesn't provide for much upward arm mobility, and these modifications didn't improve that.  However, I felt the extra coverage was required.

I have no memory of where or when these great buttons came into stash, but believe they had been used before as I had to do a little polishing to bring up their fake tortoiseshell colouration and sheen.

The pattern calls for 7 decorative buttons and four flat ones for the concealed placket below the waist.  I only used 5 - 2 on the pockets and 3 at CF.  The remaining 2 would have been on the collar but I liked the way it falls open without these extra buttons.

Speaking of the concealed placket, I sewed the placket to the facing between each of the buttons as you can (sort of) see at left.  This prevents the placket from completely falling open when you sit down.  The pattern omits this instruction, which is really essential for this type of closure.

I wish I had realized when cutting out the lining that the front lining piece was shorter than the other dress pieces (that do double duty as lining).  I hemmed the dress a tad longer than the pattern called for, which means the lining is pretty skimpy.  Note to self to check this the next time before cutting.

Finally, as you can see I did not make a self-fabric belt.  Life was definitely far too short yesterday, and I like the way this leather belt looks with the dress.