I’ve been busy working on my English Rose dress today and I am happy with the way the zip has turned out. Instead of tacking the back opening together and pushing the teeth of the zip through the gap (as it said to do on the instructions) I followed my tutors advice and tacked each side of the zip to the back opening making sure the teeth lined up with the edge of the fabric. The result is the teeth of the zip are perfectly covered by the fabric. The stitching is nice and straight because I could move the zipper up/down whilst sewing so that the stitches did not have to curve around the zipper (which they would have done if I followed the instructions as the zipper would have been stuck in one place).
To complete the back section of the dress I tacked and sewn 2 godets into place. I’m really happy with how professional these ones look after having built up my confidence on the front godets. So now it was time for the straightforward task of sewing the front and back pieces together and ta-dah...no longer lots of odd pieces, but 1 garment! A further 2 godets were sewn into place on the side seams to complete the fullness of the skirt (which is very, very full)!
After trying the dress on, it is a little big on the top half so it’s going to need taking in a little. I’m not an expert on this so I’m going to wait until my class next Thursday for my tutor’s help. But for now it's off to Lancaster!