New Look 6575

Well, despite my sleeve anxiety, Myra's Easter dress is done, and the sleeves turned out great!

I think it turned out well, overall.  This is easily the most complicated baby dress I've ever done, and of course, I had to further complicate it...

It's fully lined, except for the sleeves, and underlined.  That part the pattern called for, sort of.

I decided to use an invisible zip, instead of the centered one the pattern called for.  I think it looks much nicer, and I got to use the foot Mitch got me for Valentines Day.  If you are using that crappy plastic thing that Coats & Clark call a zipper foot, throw it away and spend the 10 bucks for a real one.  So worth it!  Anyway, the invisible zip did complicate the construction, since the organza overskirt is not incorporated into the center back seam.  It worked out fine.  I just had to do some interesting manipulation to get the zipper in around the overskirt.  And hey, how great is that perfectly matching waist seam?  Not bad, eh?
The other think I changed was the way the lining was constructed and installed.  They treated the lining almost like an additional underlining, which left all but the shoulder and side seams exposed.  What was the point in lining it then??  I elected to construct dress and lining separately, then machine sew them to the zipper and neckline...

and hand fell the sleeve lining into the armscye.  Hey, if it's good enough for Saville Row, it's good enough for my little princess!  I actually did want to practice this technique, since learning traditional tailoring is one of my 2010 goals.
My only regret was that I couldn't find ribbon rosettes the color of the ribbon trim.  I'd loved to have sewn some on the skirt, but it was not to be.  Probably, that is a good thing, as they'd probably just have ended up in Myra's mouth...  Next up is my dress.  I'm using McCall's 6024, which is from this season's new pattern lineup, so it isn't reviewed yet on PR.  It's also one with separate bodice pieces for different cup sizes, so it was great not to need an FBA!