Sheer Madness!!!!

I knew this fabric was a little sheer, but I really can see it now in these pictures. I finally finished Simplicity 2584. I am very proud of this dress. It turned out really nice and I can't wait to wear it next week to work. That's right, I start back to work on Monday. I'm hoping things won't be to crazy, but hey, who knows. Anyway, back to this dress. So, you already know that I tried french seams on this dress. I was thinking about trying some piping around the neckline, so I decided to learn how to make that also. I think it turned out pretty well, but in the end, I decided not to use it. I followed the pattern directions, sewing in the facing and then did top stitching. To make sure I didn't mess up, I used carbon paper to trace the lines from the pattern and then went over the lines on the interfacing with marker.

My favorite part of this dress was the sleeve construction. I remember when I cut this pattern out that there was a piece for the sleeve lining. When I looked at it, I said to myself, what the heck is this for. Why would I need that? Well, it genius. The sleeve is made up of 3 parts. The actual sleeve, the ruffle and the sleeve liner. Each piece is sewn together separately. Then you connect the ruffle to the liner while gathering it on one side. Then you attach the ruffle to the sleeve and gather it on the other side. When you've completed that you attach the sleeve liner to the inside where the ruffle and the sleeve meet. In doing this, you pull the ruffle into the inside or wrong side of your garment, as you can see in this picture. And it looks like this on the right side of your garment. In conclusion, I love the dress and will definitely be making another one of these. Probably next Spring, as this pattern has various other sleeve options for the dress. I have to go for now, but I wanted to leave you with my clearance find from JoAnn's last week. They were clearing out for new stock and I just could not leave them at the store. Oh, the possibilities.
I hope everyone has a great weekend. I'm going to try to.