a summer maxi and a new blog

Prost from Germany! I started off the summer with two weeks in Berlin, and now I'm living in the much smaller town of Heidelberg, where I'm doing a research internship over the summer. Sadly I had to leave my sewing machine in Montreal, so this blog might be a little quiet this summer! I'm still knitting, but it'll be a little while before that one is finished!

In the meantime, I've started a travel blog called learning to be lost! Ive been doing lots of weekend trips and so far I've been to Prague, Strasbourg and Colmar in France, Bern and Interlaken in Swizterland, and Munich. I'm going to Freiburg in Germany this weekend, and Paris next week! I'm also posting updates on Instagram, so follow me there if you don't already!

The weather here is beautiful and summery with the occasional thunderstorm - not too different from Montreal, actually!

I've been wearing my latest make a ton here - a summery maxi dress, the Poppy dress from By Hand London! I tested the pattern for them and I was super excited that it was a pattern for knits. I live in knits all summer!

The Fabric Store kindly sponsored the testers and provided us with gift cards for fabric. I ordered the most gorgeous emerald green merino wool to make the midi-dress version of Poppy, but sadly due to shipping to Canada and me never being at home to receive a package, I didn't actually get the fabric until a couple of days before the testing deadline. I would still love to make a Poppy dress with it, but I got way to busy with exams and then left for Germany. Maybe in the fall?

This was intended as my wearable muslin, made out of some inexpensive knit from a local fabric store.

Note to self: never buy cheap striped knit, because chances are it will be ridiculously off-grain after you wash it.

Cutting this out and matching stripes was a bit of a nightmare with off-grain fabric and the long pattern pieces. Did I mention that I've never actually matched stripes before and I was sewing on a tight deadline??

Once it was cut out, though, sewing was very straighforward (and my stripes even matched!). I won't comment on the pattern/instructions/fit much because I haven't had a chance to go over the revised pattern yet (and to be honest, it was a while ago that we tested this so I don't even really remember my comments), but it went together in a couple of hours, easily!

I chose to hem the neckline rather than adding a neckband, but this probably wasn't the best idea for the maxi. Because of the weight of the maxi, it's stretched quite a bit.

Come to that, the whole dress has stretched and is now too long for me. Eventually I will learn not to buy cheap fabric.

I've still worn this dress a ton, both in the spring in Montreal and since coming to Germany. It's such an easy style to throw on, and it can be dressed up or dressed down!

Also, it's great for traveling since it's knit (read: no ironing and comfy for long bus rides).

Look, it came with me to Prague! (Check out that travel blog I mentioned for more pictures)

I'll keep this post short and sweet because I need to catch up on said travel blog, and there isn't a whole lot to say about this dress other than how much I love it!

I'd never actually owned a maxi dress or skirt before and I was super skeptical about whether or not I could pull one off, but I love it!! It's surprisingly flattering, and actually the right length because I made it myself (I did have to take 3-4 inches off though, can't remember exactly).

That's it for now (and possibly for the summer....?)! Thanks again to the lovely ladies at BHL for asking me to test!!

Also thanks to James for taking these pictures for me! (This was before it got nice in Montreal and we took refuge in the underground city for photos...)

Bis später!

a life update and a new favourite purple dress

Hello, world! It's been a while.

It seems like ages that I last posted, and I guess it was. A lot has happened since then. Last semester was pretty rough - everyone said it would be, but literally nothing could have prepared me for the insane amount of work I had. After making my last dress, I didn't touch my sewing machine for the rest of the semester. I got back into knitting a little by knitting microbe plushies as a fundraiser!

This semester, my workload has been a little lighter, but I've still had a lot going on and haven't had much time to sew. I've managed to finish a couple very simple knit dresses, but you know what? I wear a lot of simple knit dresses so that feels like a pretty huge frickin' accomplishment right now.

In other life updates, I'm going to Germany this summer! I'm mildly freaking out about finding somewhere to stay, applying for visas, and booking tickets, but I have an internship for 3 months at the University of Heidelberg studying Hepatits B virus!

At the beginning of May, I'll be in Berlin for two weeks for a language course, living with a host family, then I start my internship that goes until mid-August. I'll hopefully spend the last couple weeks of August traveling around other parts of Europe before heading back to Montreal for my last year of undergrad! International sewing friends, hit me up.

(Actually though, if anyone has friends/family/connections in Germany, especially in or near Heidelberg, I'm desperately looking for a place to stay!!)

Back to sewing, I made this dress back in January in a random burst of energy for procrastination. I saw that Heather from Closet Case Patterns had released the Ebony Dress and Tee, a flared knit swing dress, and bought it on the spot! I had wanted all summer to draft a pattern like it for myself (which I've actually done already for a friend and I know it really isn't that hard), but I guess I like shiny new patterns because for the first time in ages I actually felt like sewing, and I wanted to act on that while it lasted.

The same day I bought it, I taped together the pattern, cut out the dress, and sewed most of the dress except topstitching the neckline and hemming, because I didn't have matching thread. It was a pretty quick make considering that I hadn't sewn in months - it probably took me about 4 hours for all this minus hemming.

The fabric is from Our Social Fabric in Vancouver. My mom brought it for me when she visited Montreal this summer - the perks of having a mom that volunteers at OSF and already has too much fabric! It's a rayon/spandex knit that has nice drape and body, and isn't sheer at all.

The neckline is somewhere in between the scoop neck and the jewel neck. I thought the scoop neck might be too low, but next time I'll probably just make it as-is.

I'll be honest, before hemming this, I tried it on and hated it. I didn't bother buying matching thread to hem it and it sat, unhemmed, on my sewing table for 2 weeks and all the energy I suddenly had for sewing pretty much died. I felt like it looked like a maternity dress and was probably the worst possible shape for my body!!

A couple weeks later, I decided to see what it would look like shorter. I cut 4 inches off and then tried it on, and I loved it! It was pretty much knee-length on me before, which isn't the best look for such a loose fit, lemme tell you. Shorter, though, it's super cute!

I went out and bought thread and hemmed it the next day, and I've worn it way too much ever since. It's maybe not the most flattering, but it's cute and comfortable and I don't have to worry about it not fitting during periods of excessive stress-eating.

The fit around the arms isn't perfect - the pattern was actually revised to give the smaller sizes some more room in the arms, but not until after I'd made this one. It's a little snug but I have pretty small arms and shoulders so it's not too bad. It maybe doesn't sit perfectly on my shoulders which gives the hem a bit more of a high-low effect but I kind of like that.

So tdlr; this is my new favourite dress (sorry Alix)! It's a style I never would have seen myself wearing a year ago but I'm totally in love with it. It's so easy to wear and to dress up or down. I want to make many many more and live in them all summer (in Germany!)

Thanks to James for taking such killer pictures for me! And thanks to this beautiful city for being such a great backdrop. These photos were all taken in Old Port (and yes, I was a little cold!!)

Until next time xx

Out With the Old - a (Long-Overdue) Photo Dump!

Hello again, it's been a while! Once again, I've disappeared completely from the blogosphere for a couple months. One of these days, I will figure out how to juggle writing a blog while I have midterms and labs and assignments and applications and dance and life... maybe.

In the meantime, I keep my Instagram a little more up-to-date with a mix of sewing, knitting, food, and pictures of Montreal when it's not slushy and gross like it has been the past few weeks.

I'm currently enjoying some well-deserved time off over my reading break after a really crazy midterm schedule. I've had a chance to catch up on life a little bit, including finally setting up a dedicated sewing space in my apartment. No more sewing on the kitchen table anymore!

I hadn't checked on my blog in close to a month, so I was a little surprised when I signed on the other day to see a lot of new traffic, since I've been voted one of the best sewing blogs of 2016 on Madalynne, in the 'Up and Coming' category! Thank you SO much to everyone who voted for me - I'm really flattered!

This post has been a long time coming. After my winter break, I realized that part of what's holding me back from blogging is my "blogging queue". With lots of old projects photographed and unblogged, whenever I feel like doing a blog post, I feel like it has to be about one of those old projects. But, when I go to write about them, it just seems like I made them too long ago to even bother! I can't remember the little details specific to each project, and some of them I unfortunately don't even wear anymore.

So, before I move onto posting about some newer, more exciting things (like my brand new sewing machines, my homemade Christmas gifts, and some recent pattern testing), I'm going to sum up all those projects that I haven't blogged about yet in one big photo dump.

This feels like some sort of confession - I'm getting all this off my chest before I can move on!

I'll start off with my favourite of the bunch - yet another Moneta dress! This is my third - I've already blogged about my first, second and fourth. I made this in the summer of 2014 (yikes!) and it's one of my favourite dresses to wear (along with all my other Monetas!).

I used an organic cotton and hemp blend jersey, and lined the bodice with cream bamboo jersey. I added the peter pan collar, which looks a little ripply in these photos because it stretched as I sewed it, but it flattened out with a couple washings. I included the pockets, and they worked really well in the more substantial jersey.

Keeping with the knit theme, I made a couple Bronte tops that summer as well.

I made the red one from some rayon jersey (you might recognize it from my Natalie dress that I made last summer!). I cut a size 6, but sized up at the waist because I don't like my T-shirts skin tight, and I found the fit to be pretty good, but the armholes were a little tight.

For the purple one, I just sized up to a size 8 everywhere, and I prefer the fit that way. I made it from a remnant of the most amazing bamboo jersey, and my favourite part is the buttons - they were from my grandma's stash and they have polka-dot bow ties on them! The buttons on the red one were also from my grandma's stash.

Next up is a skirt I made from handprinted cotton voile from Maiwa on Granville Island in Vancouver. I followed Tilly's guide to make a Picnic Blanket Skirt, which is simply a gathered button-down skirt, to which I added pockets and a lining.

It ended up looking really clean on the inside - in fact it's almost reversible and could have been with a little more planning. Too bad! I'll keep that in mind for a future project...

These buttons were also from my Grandma's stash - they were hand-carved ones she bought when travelling in Africa.

I love the print of this skirt, but it's almost a little too gathered to feel practical. I love it when I wear it, but I don't find myself reaching for it! I might shorten it and see if that helps - I've done that with a couple full skirts and I find it makes them more wearable.

This next skirt is the Chardon skirt by Deer and Doe, a pattern company that I've wanted to try for ages. My mom gave me this pattern for Christmas in 2014, and I made it when I was in Vancouver briefly before going to Canmore last summer.

I made a size 36, which was for a waist measurement a little bigger than mine, but it's snug! The pattern isn't kidding when it says it has very little ease. I put in a hand-picked lapped zipper, and I omitted the topstitching on the pleats, simply stitching in the ditch to secure them instead.

The fabric is some polyester crepe that was in my aunt's stash that she passed on to me. I normally don't like poly much, but it was the perfect weight to hold the pleats and yet still drape, but I found that I never wore the colour since it only matched with this one shirt. So, I dyed it! I haven't taken pictures since, but it's now a gorgeous purple-blue colour. Admittedly, it still doesn't match with very much, although I do like the colour a lot more now.

Since learning to sew with knits, I've also made a TON of underwear from jersey scraps. Here are my first four (experimental) pairs!

I used So, Zo's free pattern as a starting point, but modified it for a lot more coverage and more of a boy-short cut. It took quite a few tries to figure out the right length of elastic to use - you might notice the bottom left pair have waaay too much elastic. Now I can whip up a pair from leftover jersey in under an hour, and they turn out well every time!

And lastly, a knitting project!

I used a hand-dyed and hand-spun BFL yarn for this set, which is some of the softest wool I've ever worked with - it's gorgeous! The pattern for the hat was a free pattern I picked up from a local yarn store, but I think the wool wasn't quite bulky enough for it. I used the same cable pattern for the cowl, and skipped the ribbing at the bottom edge to make it roll.

I'm not really sure how I feel about these - they're nice, but neither are quite warm enough for the Montreal winter. The hat is a little small and the cowl is a little big, so they don't really keep my neck and ears that warm! It seems a shame to save these for the fall and spring, so I'm considering re-knitting them into a cozier scarf.

So, that's everything for my photo dump! I'll be back soon with my latest handknit sweater, my tester version of the brand-new Sarah Shirt from BHL, and some handknit Christmas gifts.... promise!

Now to find myself a photographer so I can actually keep that promise...

Completed: Wool Muse Jenna Cardi

When I went back to school in September, one of my main goals was to make time for sewing, knitting, and blogging, especially since I now have not only one sewing machine, but two!

Three months later, I'm at that point in the semester when all my labs are finishing up, I've been done with midterms for a week now, and I'm realizing that I definitely haven't been keeping up with that goal! In fact, my sewing machines are still sitting on my living room floor because I don't yet have a desk for them. My desk for studying never seems to be clear for long enough to use it as a sewing desk! I'm lucky enough to have space in my student apartment for a small dedicated sewing space, but I still haven't bought the table I need to set it up.

Anyways, although I haven't been sewing, I still have so many unblogged projects to write about. I originally wrote this post back in the summer in between rounds of the Super Online Sewing Match, but never finished editing the photos for it! Now that Montreal is starting to feel a little wintery, I've been wearing this a lot lately and thought it was a good time to (finally!) post about it!

I had quite a few comments on this cardigan during Me-Made-May this year - it's my second version of the Muse Jenna Cardi, made in a wool double knit that I bought in Montreal during my first fabric shopping trip to Rue St. Hubert. I made this when I was home for Christmas (so, almost a year ago, oops!)

My first version of this pattern fit pretty well, but it needed a couple adjustments. When I first made it, I was expecting it to be much too long, so I shortened it 1 1/2". This turned out to be too much, so I lengthened it 1", so this version is only 1/2" shorter than the original, which is just about perfect.

I took in the shoulder seams 1/4", which makes them sit a bit better on me. They could still be narrowed a little, although they may have just stretched out a little. If I make another, I'll stabilize the shoulder seams with clear elastic (in fact, I might go back and sew some to the seam allowance of this one, to stop them stretching out more).

Although I ended up shortening the sleeves on my first version to 3/4 length, I noticed that they were quite wide before I chopped them off, so I narrowed them by 1/2" on either side for this version. I narrowed the cuff to match, and I shortened them 2". I think Muse patterns are drafted for someone quite a bit taller!

I sewed all the seams on my mom's serger, and the topstitching was done on my regular machine, with a ballpoint needle and a straight stitch. Oddly enough, I find that a straight stitch stretches more when it's topstitching a serged seam allowance flat. It's all I've ever used for this kind of topstitching on knits, and I've never had any problems with broken stitches! For hems, I still use a twin needle or a narrow zigzag, though.

Although this fabric is amazing to wear, it was tricky to sew with. I didn't really have any problems until the button band, which I realized was far too short when I went to attach it! I think it shrunk when I fused the interfacing to it (I did pre-wash it, but in cold water)! I luckily had enough fabric left over to squeeze an extra button band out of it, making it extra long. After I'd interfaced it, I cut it to the right length.

The fabric also definitely has some spandex, whereas the fabric I used for my first version didn't. The vertical stretch from the spandex made attaching the button band quite difficult! The top layer kept stretching, and as a result, there are a couple little tucks in the stitching on the inside, but nothing is visible from the outside, so I decided to leave it. Unpicking serging is such a pain - that's one advantage to sewing knits on a regular machine!

The topstitching was equally tricky, because the fabric kept wanting to stretch and bunch up. I eventually got it to look decent, though it's definitely not my best topstitching. This would be a lot easier in fabric with less vertical stretch!

After this, I decided that making buttonholes in this fabric would be far too finicky, so instead I attached snaps by hand. These buttons are only decorative!

These buttons have a somewhat interesting story - I finished this cardigan while home for Christmas, aside from attaching snaps and buttons. I didn't have any buttons that I wanted to use, but I knew that I would be able to buy some in Montreal. Once I attached the snaps, though, it took me at least a month to get myself out to buy buttons! It's not that it's really that far by metro to Rue St. Hubert, but it was difficult to find time to make the trip.

When I finally did, it was an afternoon that I had no labs and no immediate studying to do, but it was also one of the coldest days in February (and Montreal had a record-breaking cold February)! I was planning to go to Rubans Boutons, a store that specializes in buttons, but it was so bitterly cold and windy that I just ducked into the first store I saw that sold buttons and bought these. It was a really difficult shade to match, so instead I went for these black-brown buttons with a little flower detail. I love them, and they were really inexpensive.

I think that with the little tweaks to the fit, and a nicer (to wear) fabric, this second version of the Jenna turned out much better than the first. It's a super versatile piece and nice and cozy! The only things I don't love is that the style doesn't look so nice unbuttoned, so I might experiment next time with making it into a V-neck with a continuous binding around the neck and button band. In some of these pictures, I unbuttoned the bottom half, but it's not the most flattering way to wear it!

I should also mention the top I'm wearing in this post, since I probably won't post about it on its own. It's my fourth version of the Bronte Top by Jennifer Lauren, my go-to knit to pattern. I whipped it up when I needed a simple project to get back into sewing when I was home for reading week. The fabric you might recognize if you've been following for a while - it's leftover from a Moneta dress that I made last summer.

I made it with 3/4 length sleeves and added on extra ease at the hips, like my third Bronte, and I'm pretty happy with it. I goofed and overlapped the shoulder too much, so when I took these pictures, the neckline was really tight and not super flattering.

Note to self: just because you've already made a pattern three times, doesn't mean that it wouldn't help to glance at the instructions! They say clearly that you line up the notch on the front piece with the edge of the back piece when they overlap, but I went ahead and lined up the notches on the two pieces, meaning that I overlapped them a lot more than I was supposed to!

It would mean a lot of unpicking serged seams to fix this, so I just left it, accepting that it wasn't my best make. But, I realized pretty quickly that I wasn't wearing it, so it needed to be fixed. The first thing that I unpicked was the stitching that tacks the two layers together, and I realized that this fixed the problem! It now bunches up a little around the shoulders, but with such a busy print, it's not noticeable. For such a simple knit top, it was an easy fix, so I'm happy with it! I haven't had a chance to take any pictures since fixing it, but I find it much more flattering now.

Anyways, I'm not going to convince myself that I'll have time to blog again while studying for finals, but you can keep up with me on Instagram, where I'll share some sneak peeks of my holiday knitting (that I'm NOT going to leave to the last minute... right???)

Until next time! Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers, and thanks for reading!

SOSM Round Two: The Marianne Dress

Thanks to everyone for the wonderful comments on my Sutton Blouse for the first round of the Super Online Sewing Match! If you follow me on Instagram or if you follow Sew Mama Sew, you may have seen that I made it through the first round, and that the second challenge was the Marianne Dress by Christine Haynes.

If you've been following this blog for a while, you'll know that I love a good knit dress. I taught myself to sew with knits just over a year ago with my first Moneta dress - before that, my attempts at sewing with knits had been unsuccessful and downright frustrating, so I avoided them as much as I could. After that first Moneta, though, I really learned to love them! I made Monetas numbers two, three (unblogged), and four, as well as the Sewaholic Davie dress, the Muse Natalie dress, and countless knit tops.

So, I was really excited at first when I saw that the second challenge was a knit dress! I had also been curious about trying the shift dress silhouette for a while now, even though I usually prefer more fitted bodices and more flared skirts. The Marianne dress, though, looked like it could be a really versatile and wearable dress, so I was eager to try it.

My only worry about this challenge was that it could be too easy! I had plenty of patterned knit fabric in my stash that would be great for this dress, and I probably could have put it together in a few hours had I not modified the pattern. But, it is a sewing contest after all, and part of the reason I entered was to motivate myself to take on some more challenging projects. This project just needed something more, and it took me a little while to come up with a plan.

In the meantime, I printed the pattern (at the library again), and cut a size 0 at the bust, 2 at the waist, and 4 at the hips. I knew that the pattern had enough ease that a straight size 0 probably would have been fine, but I figured it was easier to take it in than let it out.

I made a shirt-length wearable muslin out of some patterned jersey that I had tons of. I'm really glad I did! I found it a little snug everywhere, despite cutting out the size that should have given me plenty of ease. I thought that this was a little odd, but just added on 1/2" on either side at the bust and a couple inches onto the sleeves, and moved on. I also widened the neckline significantly, which I find is more flattering on me than a crewneck.

The idea for how I could make this much more than a simple knit dress came from Laura Mae, whose fabulous vintage-inspired garments and sewing skills I've always admired. A few months ago, she posted an amazing Alabama Chanin-inspired outfit, a skirt and jacket made of two layers of cotton jersey reverse appliqued together.

After remembering this outfit, I spent some time looking through some Alabama Chanin (and Alabama Chanin-inspired) pieces online, and I decided that I really loved the idea of reverse applique around the neckline of this dress. With that in mind, I decided on a short-sleeved, collarless version, to let the applique stand out.

I had the perfect fabric for the main body of the dress, a dark purple ponte knit that I got when I volunteered at Our Social Fabric. It was great for this dress - it's so soft and doesn't feel super synthetic like some ponte knits do (although it probably does have some nylon or poly content, as ponte knits do). It was solid enough that it was a dream to sew with, but drapey enough to be flattering.

The tougher question was what to use for the contrast! I had some patterned jersey in my stash, but decided immediately that they would be too busy. I considered using some lace that I had, but it was really scratchy and I didn't think it would be comfortable around the neckline. Since shipping to Canada takes too long, online shopping wasn't really an option, and the local quilting and sewing store only had nothing, I had to work with what solid knit I had in my stash, which was a small amount of some off-white bamboo jersey.

I thought that the off-white would be too high-contrast for what I was planning, though. I was planning a leaf pattern, and I wanted something a little softer. So, I tried dyeing the fabric with tea! After making some samples with coffee and a couple different kinds of tea, I liked the colour from black tea best. I made a large pot of pretty strong tea on the stovetop, let the fabric sit in it for about 20 minutes, then rinsed it in cool water and dried it. I didn't think it was quite dark enough, though, so I tried again, making the tea a little stronger this time. Still, not dark enough... the next morning, I added another five tea bags, kept the water simmering, and let the fabric sit in it for about two hours, while I worked away on the design that I wanted. Finally, I was happy with how dark it was, and cut out the dress!

Instead of using the neck binding, I made a facing/partial lining to finish the neckline and the sleeves out of the contrasting jersey. To do this, I simply cut out the upper part of the dress, trimmed all the edges 1/8" to make it slightly smaller, and sewed it so that the seams would be concealed, but the right side of the fabric would be facing the wrong side of the ponte, so that it would show through when I did the reverse applique. I made it quite long on purpose, because I wasn't yet sure how I would finish it.

I made this on a regular machine, since I'm not living at home anymore, so I can't use my mom's serger. This is the second knit dress that I've made on a regular machine, and I'm getting the hang of sewing knits without a serger! It's a little more work, but it's surprisingly neat, and gives a little more control. I didn't finish the edges of the ponte because it didn't roll, but I did finish the jersey edges with a medium zigzag.

I started by sewing the shoulder seams, adding clear elastic, pressing them open to reduce bulk, and then basting the side seams to check the fit. Well, I had a bit of a problem! By extending the sleeves, I had made the armholes so small that I couldn't get my arms through them! I ended up taking off everything that I had added on under the arm, and leaving the sleeves an inch longer than they originally were, rather than the couple of inches that I had added. I also noticed that the dress was considerably shorter than what the finished measurements said it would be... strange!

It wasn't until I cleaned up the scraps of paper I cut away from the pattern that I realized why. I saw the 4" square and measured it, finding it to be only 3 7/8"! I've never had a problem with my printer scaling patterns before, but I suppose the library printer must have scaled it. I didn't have a ruler with me, so I never even bothered to check! It's amazing how much of a difference that 1/8" can make. Ah, I felt so stupid!

By the time I realized this, there wasn't time to start over, so I just had to work with what I had. After removing some of the extra I added onto the sleeves, the armhole fit comfortably, and I'd already added onto the side seams, so it wasn't too much of a problem. Lesson learned, though! (And, my printer ink just arrived in the mail, so I shouldn't have this problem again!)

I unpicked the side seams, sewed the facing and the dress together at the neckline, and stabilized it with some clear elastic (without it, I find that wider knit necklines stretch out over time). I understitched for a nice edge, then sewed the side seams. I used this method from the Moneta dress, to give a nice, clean finish when sewing the dress and the facing together at the armholes.

Next up was the most time-consuming part, the applique. I had worked out the designs and made a stencil from some cardboard while my fabric was dyeing, so I started by tracing the design onto the fabric with chalk. I then ran a line of long, running stitches around every leaf and stem, through both layers of fabric, about 3/16" from the chalk lines. Using embroidery scissors, because I was scared that I would cut too much using fabric scissors, I trimmed out the leaves and stems.

The whole process of hand sewing the applique around the neckline took me about 8 hours (the most hand sewing I've ever done in one sitting!), but I found it so satisfying. I loved the effect that it created, and with a good audiobook, the time went by quickly.

To finish the facing, I originally thought that I would just trim it around the stitching, but I was a little worried that doing so would make a ridge visible from the outside. Instead, I just trimmed a little off the bottom, zigzagged to stop it rolling, and tacked the seam allowances of the dress and the facing/lining together by hand. It ends just under the bust, where the dress is loose enough that it doesn't show.

In these inside-out photos, it was difficult to get it to lay flat, since the facing/lining is a little smaller than the dress, but it lies really nicely when worn, without any bunching up like there would be if the facing were the same size.

I was considering leaving the hem raw, since it was already on the short side, and I thought it would match nicely the raw edges of the applique. But, that just felt so anticlimactic! I actually love hemming as the final step in making anything, especially when I do it by hand. So, I pressed up 1/2" and catchstitched it by hand. This was my first time hemming a knit by hand, and I was a little worried that it wouldn't have enough stretch, but I was pleasantly surprised!

The most stressful part of this challenge was taking the photos! Unfortunately, the family friend that took the beautiful photos of my Sutton blouse couldn't make it at the last minute, and it was too late to find anyone else to take some photos for me. It took me a few tries to get a decent set of self-timed photos, but I think they're passable. For me next project, though, I'll definitely find someone to take some photos for me - they turn out nicely when I don't have to duct tape a camera to a tree someone else takes them!

Overall, I'm so, so happy with how this dress turned out! It's so comfortable and easy to wear, and the shape surprisingly flattering. Despite being a little surprised at how short it ended up, I think I like the shorter length - it balances out the looser silhouette! I'm so proud of the reverse applique, and I think it was completely worth the time.

To see the other contestants' finished Marianne dresses, and to follow the rest of the contest, head on over to Sew Mama Sew! I've already seen a few Mariannes up on the others' blogs, and it looks like it's going to be a tough competition - they're all so gorgeous!