A Frock by Friday™: Friday

This is what you're going to have by the end of today! Are you excited? Looks like something you'd see in Modcloth. I just needed an excuse to document the lovely azalea bushes in front of our home. They only look that good for about two weeks out of the year. Yikes, I have to do some weeding! Actually, those are 90% herbs but they really don't look good in the front flower bed. Sadly, I think I'm going to have to dig them up this year:( Okay, I'm digressing. Let's go!

1. Sew the zipper on. This will be tricky for those of you who have never sewn a zipper in. I used an invisible zipper but if you only have a regular one that’s fine too. Just be sure that it reaches several inches past your waist hem so that it can fit over your hips.

To Sew the Zipper on:
Match the zipper to the edge of the fabric as shown in photo to left. The back of the zipper is face up and the front of the zipper is against the right side (by ‘right side’ I mean top side of fabric) of the bodice.

If you need to use pins, pin to bodice, but you must remove these as you sew. You cannot leave them in.

Fold over the top of the zipper to the back so that the top plastic part is at the top of the bodice. OR you could not fold it over and add a clasp at the top. I prefer the lazy way:)

If you have a zipper foot. Use it. If you don’t you can still sew on the zipper but it might not be quite as neat.

Keep your presser foot to the side of the edge of the zipper as shown in the photo to the left. If you only have a normal foot the zipper will have to move under the foot. Just go very slowly. The key is to stitch as close to the zipper as possible without catching any of the teeth of the zipper. If you do catch the teeth, take out your garment, rip out the last few stitches you made and begin where you left off. If you catch the teeth even ONCE the zipper won’t work.

Here is a link to a good zipper video tutorial. I think it’s always easier to view by video. Unfortunately, I don’t have anyone to hold one for me while I sew:)

2. Stitch the zipper until you get about two or three inches from the bottom and stop.

3. Zip up the zipper

4. Find the end of your stitches.

5. Begin sewing at the end of your stitches down to the bottom of the skirt.

6. Zipper should now look like this. If you don’t want your loose strings to get stuck in the zipper, serge or zigzag stitch the material around the zipper.

7. Iron down all the seams

8. Serge or zigzag stitch the bottom of the skirt.

9. Fold over ½” for hem and stitch.

10. For those super daring you can try the ‘blind hem’. I won’t go into that now because I think it’s a more

intermediate finish but if you’d like to try here is a good instructional video. It does look a lot nicer in the end.

11. Iron your hem.

DONE! DONE! DONE!

Can you believe it? You did it! I hope it wasn’t as hard as you thought it would be.

Please post your finished work to Grosgrain Flickr! I'm so excited to see what fabrics you used, if you tried sleeves, how it looks on! I will be doing a post next week featuring all the people who posted their dress!

See:
Thursday
Wednesday
Tuesday
Monday
Preface

Pattern courtesy of The Selfish Seamstress.

Link to this project