Theresa LaQuey - Guest blogger ... the saga of the beaded dress continues - part 4 - assembly

I keep sneaking out of bed in the middle of the night to get five or six hours in during the weekend, but also spend good time with my honey.

From Andrea ...  TO BEAD OR NOT TO BEAD, that is the question!

Click this to read yesterday's post if you missed it.

By the Monday before we leave, the black panels are done.  Oh but oops, I am wondering if I have any white chiffon for the yoke.  I go spelunking in the fabric boxes and find some.  Yet another whew!  Same process, mark fabric, stretch, bead.  I send Andrea photos, just to let her know I have made it to the white.

The final touches, the looped fringe.  I had always wanted to try this, but was never so bold. 
The fringe is also done with the tambour hook, but instead of one bead per stitch, I use 8 beads still using the same chain stitch as the rest of my beading. 

Since it is just a chain stitch,  a whole line tambour beading can come undone if one stitch is broken or not done well. I keep having nightmares of thousands of beads from the fringe spilling out on the dance floor at the Savoy, with other guests slipping and sliding as my dress unravelled.  But, nightmares can be helpful to get one out of bed to complete the task.  The earlier I get up, the more I am on the UK time schedule. By Christmas Eve I am cutting out the gown and putting it together.  This is the easy part.  

The dress will be sewn up without a lining.  I will wear a silk crepe slip under it, that I made for another dress.  An unlined dress hangs better and is much easier to clean.  Which reminds me of the instructions for washing a beaded dress I have in a 1920's homemaking book I own.  

It says "wash beaded dress the way you would wash any other dress, just don't put it though the ringer" !!! 

Can you imagine all the cracking a crushed beads!  But, that is how to remove beads, if needed, without disturbing the chain stitch.  Smash any unwanted beads with a hammer and carefully remove all the pieces.

I cut around the beaded areas, don't have to make seam allowance perfect as the beads determine what the shapes are.  

Here I am stay stitching the neckline. This will make hand rolling a hem easier.

I mainly use french seams as much as possible as they are more durable and look nicer with sheer fabric. In order to stitch as close to the beading as possible, I need a zipper foot.  I have a vintage Singer foot that I like the best for this, because it stitches closer than my Bernina's.  

I use the zipper foot for the french seams and darts, everywhere I need to stitch right next to the beading.

I hand roll the hem along the neckline and check how it is hanging.

I can now attach the yoke to the bodice.

The underarm is finished with a strip of self fabric bias that will also be hand slipstitched in place.

By the time we leave to be with family for Christmas Eve, the gown is pretty much together.  I do the try on.  It looks wonderful, but the weight has caused the waist to be way too big.  And you know, I only used 3 kilos of beads, not the 6 I had hoped to. 

From Andrea ... a kilo equals about 2 1/4 lbs.  So 3 kilos is about 6 1/2 lbs. and 6 kilos is about 13 lbs.  That seems like too heavy of a dress for me!

My girlfriend Kimberly marks the hem and I figure out a way for a quick alteration that I can do in London.  I also do a quick alteration to the long black silk slip I made two months ago, cutting out the back as this gown has such a low back.  I pre-press the hem, roll the gown up in and put it in my carry on luggage.  I'm not letting that dress out of my clutches after all the work that went into it.

I did the hem and the alterations on New Year's Eve in our hotel room.  The reason that I did it in London is that I still wanted to finish another outfit before we went. 

Yeah, I know ... crazy, but how often does a girl get to London for New Year's?

From Andrea ... tomorrow read about the dress's debut at the Savoy.