Saga of a Red Dress

So! Here in photo format, an adventure in dressmaking.

To begin with, the fabric and pattern:

Lovely red stretch velet stuff to make a dress to wear to Joe's work party, along with a pattern for a simple but hopefully pretty dress.

I cut out the pattern pieces that the pattern instructions tell me to (to the size I am guestimating I'll need, from the measurements on the pattern envelope!)

Time to pin! Pinning the pattern down to this fabric was challenging, because it stretches, it has stripes of embellishment, and it has a nap (the velvet lays down in one direction and not the other). Tricky! Next on to putting the pieces together in preparation to sew them. I match the notches and edges:

Then I pin the pieces down. There are several ways to pin. Here I demonstrate how to pin along the seam, in the same direction that the stitches will go:

Time to sew! You'll see in this photo that I pinned horizontal to the seam (the little colored pin heads are hanging over the edge of the fabric. Some say this makes it easier to pull them out as you sew):

If you choose to pin the other way, make sure to pin so that the pointy edge goes away from you, into the machine first. Otherwise the pin is backward, and the ball goes in first (makes it very difficult to pull out!):

Sewing sewing sewing! La dee da dee daaaaa! Ready to see the finished project? Here you go!

What do you think? And lest you think that I was the only dapper one at the party, think again:

So obviously I've been playing with the camera, working on photo-taking for the website. Any feedback on these photos is appreciated!

The party, since you asked, was very nice. Food was incredible - wish I could've taken some in a doggy bag. It was a very pretty location, and I felt festive in my new dress.

Christmas preparations are moving along nicely. I got the tree up (finally). It's a bit crooked and reminds me of Charlie Brown's tree, but hey. It's up. I've written cards and they'll go out in the mail tomorrow. I've started sewing gift bags, and am making progress on shopping.

This week we have several parties to attend as well. Lots to do!

We went camping yesterday overnight at a state park near here. It was a lot of work to get there and to get set up, but it was nice. The fun thing was, we had a drippy faucet outside of our camper. Not heavily drippy, but just slightly. We saw a squirrel running near the camper, and then looked out and saw it hanging upside down from the faucet, drinking from it. 2 squirrels took turns drinking. Then later that evening, we were sitting out by the campfire and saw two raccoons walking by the trailer. One of them also drank from the faucet, standing on his back legs. Very cute. Must be a popular watering hole! When I went out later to brush my teeth, I saw lots of pairs of glowing blue/silver eyes in the woods, and realized they were deer - some were very close!

Alright, it's time for bed. Hope everyone has a nice start to the week!