A Dress for Ireland - Part 4: Finishing touches.

8:18 PM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments

The pattern I used

So I have the basic bones of the dress finished. I just need to add buttons and trim. Turns out I have just as much indecision picking out buttons as I do picking out patterns or fabric. Surprise, surprise. I narrowed it down to three button types and I also thought about using the black fabric I already had and was using for the trim to make buttons. I ruled the latter out because I am lazy. So it was down to three buttons of which I chose one that was not too ornate but in a certain light you can catch the hint of a square or diamond (depending how you see it) that I felt reflected the check like pattern in the fabric.

I had to use a houndstooth fabric from the store because I forgot to bring a swatch of my fabric. I love those flower buttons but chose to go more simple and settled on the buttons in the middle.

The pattern calls for 4 buttons but since I want to be able to wear this as a full dress at times I decided to put in one more button above those 4 and 5 more below it for a total of 10 buttons. If you have to shop at Joann Fabrics I recommend you check your phone for coupons because I got 10 of those buttons for $3 because of a 60% off coupon online.

I put the dress on and figured where I would want the top button and put a pin there. Then I found where my waist is and put a pin there for a button. With those two spots I measured the spacing for the rest of the buttons. It ended up about every 3.75 inches or so. I forget now to be honest. I was nerve wracked putting in the buttonholes because it was so darn permanent. I took some test fabric and put in three test buttonholes. They all went in perfect. Then I went to cut out the actual hole and I ripped a 6 inch hole going right past the pin I put in to stop just a thing from happening.

I was not going to risk anything with this dress so I double pinned the edge of the hole to not over cut. Perhaps I should not have used permanent red marker to mark the locations of the buttons...ya think?

Luckily this was just the test fabric but that made me even more nervous so I put in two pins when I did the real deal. Things turned out perfectly fine. I did make a small error in judgement when marking the location of the button holes though. I used chalk but once it came to aligning it with my machine I could never find the mark so I went with red. I didn't realize how much that would show up in the end. You have to look real close to see it luckily. Shhh it will be our secret.

I don't know what you are talking about.

Ok, buttonholes are in and I put in corresponding buttons by putting on the dress and sticking a pin in each buttonhole. I had to readjust a few buttons because it pulled weird but I am happy with the 10 buttons. I wanted to add one more bit of black somewhere on the dress because I felt it needed a little more pop so I thought to put it on the pockets. The question was now....and you already know I am terrible with decisions like this but....do I put the black trim on the inside or outside of the pocket?

The pocket on your and my left shows inside trim and the right is outside trim. Sorry for potato quality photo.

I tried to show more detail by putting my hand in each pocket so the difference showed better.

I asked my friends and family and we all decided the same thing...the outside. I put 1.75 inches of black sewn to the outside then folded it in and hand stitched it inside the pocket.

I put the dress on and found it to be super baggy so I took it in 1 inch on 4 of the seams for a total of 4 inches taken in. This made the dress a little hippy but I am still happy because I know I will have to take it out eventually. I want this to be versatile as a coat and dress as well as for various seasons and various body sizes I may go though. In the end I chose to not put a black trim on the bottom because I liked it the length it was at. The only change I am going to make from here is to put a hook and bar at the waist because it seems to pull a bit right there.

Finished product.

So I am finished with the dress. I will post better photos from the wedding next month when I wear this to Ireland. I feel like this will be warm enough to wear on a cold, likely wet, spring day and evening in a stone Irish farmhouse yet flouncy enough to dance in all night. It will also serve as a jacket for the rest of the 10 days I will be traveling around Scotland and Ireland. I am going to bring a sewing kit just in case I made some fatal errors but I feel this is a solid dress and will make the journey comfortably.