Sewing Projects In November

I finished this dress for my daughter. It's one of the dresses that I wanted to make for her upcoming birthday.

We have been living in an RV for the last several months. There are not any large enough surfaces to lay out material to cut. This is how I cut out the material for the dress. 

I lift the mattress off the main bed and prop it against a wall. Under the mattress is a nice large wooden plank. 

Then I cut out a dress. If you're ever living in an RV and need a large flat surface, keep this tip in mind. ;)

On Saturday, I can set my sewing machine up at the table. Nevermind the milk in the picture. I had left some frozen items out on the table that day to thaw, including the milk. :)

On week days I do a lot of hand sewing jobs while I sit and homeschool. I was basting sew-in interfacing on the collar and cuff pieces in this picture.

I still have to make a pinafore to go with the butterfly dress. I have this pink material picked out.

This is the fabric that I have picked out for the third and final dress and pinafore. I will be hard pressed to finish for her birthday, but we shall see.

Another project that I finished this month was the golden mock up for the flower girl dress. (You can read about it in this blog post incase you missed it.)

Now, I have started working on the real flower girl dress. Boy, am I frustrated with the rookie mistakes that I have been making!

I have the bodice assembled. I have been having a lot of trouble with the sleeves.

I had my iron heat setting too high and messed up the first sleeve.

The extra heat left ripples in the fabric. The damage was not very obvious. 

I wanted to cut out a new sleeve, and start over. But first I had to cut out the skirt pieces to be sure I had enough leftover fabric to cut another sleeve.

I have found that the mattress with the bedding removed is firm enough for me to lay out fabric and cut pieces on it. No more propping the mattress up and blocking the door way.
 

Anyway, I had enough fabric to cut out a new sleeve. Yay!

I sewed the new sleeve all together and went to set it in the bodice only to find that I had put it together with the wrong side of the fabric facing out! Agggggh!

The fabric is so hard to tell right side from wrong side. Maybe I could get away with using it wrong side out? But, the back part of the sleeve with the double notches was at the front, and the front of the sleeve with the single notch was in the back. The curve at the top of the sleeve is not symmetrical and can't be reversed.

Oh well, I had to do a lot of stitch ripping. I am going to have to put together with the right side out this time. I have not made as much progress as I had hoped on this flower girl dress this month.

And that is the conclusion of my sewing progress this month. Pray for me to not make any more mistakes on this flower girl dress. It is getting discouraging!