Oliver + S Playdate dress . finally

So I am sadly realizing that the turnaround time from project-supply-buying to actual creation is well over a year. Remember this post from March of 2010? As you can see, I finally finished the Oliver + S Playdate dress and got my kid to stand still long enough for me to take some photos. At least I had the foresight to buy the larger size.

As usual, I got a little frustrated by all the details of the pattern and did a few revisions. And I have no idea where those red buttons went off to but I'm much happier with the lime green ones I bought instead.

I bought the loot for this pattern before I read the instructions and picked up piping trim instead of bias tape. That started the whole thing off on the wrong foot (pun intended) but I'm very happy with the results. I like the extra detail there instead of a ruffle.

But let me tell you, that yoke is a bitch. I have said it before on this blog that I learned my best strings of curse words from my mother while she was sewing. And one day Z will have her own sewing blog and say the very same thing about me. I made it hard on myself with the wrong supplies, sure, but it's a challenge either way. So here's what I did. I turned the yoke back inside-out (you'll know what I mean if you sew this) and made my seam allowance a little bit wider wherever I could but not at the seams. Then it still did not match up with the dress so I pulled apart my shoulder seams and tucked in the extra and made it work. To finish it, I topstitched both shoulder seams and you would not know I screwed it up.

Also, I didn't know what the heck I was supposed to do at the cuff so I just did a roll hem and added the extra button detail. Awesome. Finally, the hem called for handstitching and I wasn't about to bother so I just ironed the hem facing and stitched it to the bottom of the dress. Quick and it looks fine. I love my kid but there will be no handstitching if it can't be seen. That means embroidery and buttons will be the only time I pick up a needle and thread. Hello.

Here is a shot of the yoke at it's worst. What a mess. I have this foot that has a high edge and a low edge and I used that instead of the zipper foot that I started with. It worked great. I think it is supposed to be for hemming denim. You can also look at the photo of the back of the yoke above and see some crap topstitching but my hope is that the kid moves so fast no one will ever notice.