Saturday's Doin's

First, an apology to all who read yesterday's title and thought we'd lost Pepper. It was a logical assumption on your part and one I did not even think of when I titled the post. I'll try not to do that again in the future.

Speaking of Pepper, she is adjusting to Tammo's visit well. He still has a lot of puppy in him and Pepper's been getting a little more exercise than she normally does!

We have many dog beds around the house because Nash and Molly visit so often, but Tammo seems to like Pepper's favorite beds the most. She is the dominant dog of the four, and she is letting him use hers without any problems. Still, I am keeping an eye on things - this is her home and if she wants her own bed, I will provide Tammo with an alternate. 

Saturday was a sunny day and I'd hoped to have some pictures of Abby and the herd to share with you. But when I arrived at the barn they were way out in the northwest field at the hay rack eating their dinner.  Rather than calling her up, I let her stay where she was. (I did see a bald eagle while I was driving!)

In other activities for the day, I spent a good part of the afternoon pleating the back of the robe a l'Anglais. 

Transferring the pleat marks from the pattern to the fabric of the gown was tedious but it was vitally important that I get it right. It didn't help that the pattern's instructions cautioned me that, "These pleats are what everyone will be looking at when you wear your gown."

Gulp. No pressure, huh?

The pattern had to be lengthened by an inch because Lisa is tall. That meant I had to trace the original pattern onto dressmaker's paper, cut the new pattern in half, and then insert a card one inch from either side of the cut line, taping it in place while lining up all those dots, dashes and lines plus the edges of the garment.

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Next I had to transfer all those dots, dashes, and lines to the dress itself. I settled for just dots - the different marks are a means of helping you know which line was what, but I knew I could also do that simply by counting the lines to get the ones I wanted. Doing just dots was a time saver.

That done (a process that needed to be duplicated on the other side, too), it was time to use those markings to form the knife pleats. Knife pleats that also curved. This was challenging especially since the fabric was long and draped over the edge of the table, causing it to slide away from me as I shifted it to make the pleats.

Anchoring it with two of my pin holders kept it in place while I matched chalk marks and pleated the fabric.

The directions said that if the knife pleats had been done correctly, then the outer sides of the fabric would be straight. I stepped back to take a look.

Success! And I have to admit that I had a good laugh over this picture. I must still have UFOs on the brain because this picture made me think of either an alien or a massive praying mantis face!

I've rotated the photo so that the gown is as Lisa will wear it. That center seam (part of the box pleat, now hidden on the wrong side of the fabric) will line up with her back and the pleats will fall freely down to the hem of the gown.

Next up? Fitting part of the lining to this pleated fabric and then HAND SEWING each pleat down to the lining. 

That's going to be very time consuming. Even more, it will be difficult - those stitches will need to be hidden as much as possible so they will need to be teeny tiny. And at the same time, the pleats must be anchored down well so they don't tear out - they will have a lot of weight pulling on them as the gown hangs. (That piece of fabric is 55" long, neck to hem.)

Teeny tiny stitches that are hidden and at the same time carrying a lot of weight? That will be challenging.

Stay 'tooned!

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