Days 16 and 17 part 2

I told you I'd talk about how I bagged the lining for Emily's wedding gown.  I was so worried about doing a beautiful job that it literally took me weeks to cut the darn thing out after I'd altered the muslin, and when it came time to put the lining in, it was even worse.  I mean, it's pretty easy to sew a lining to the neckline and zipper seam, but actually finishing a dress/coat without having ANY seams showing was daunting at best.  I really wanted her dress to be as perfect as possible and I read a couple of tutorials (one of which may actually have been in a book) about the bagging technique and puzzled my way through it in my brain until the proverbial lightbulb clicked on and it suddenly made sense.  Basically, you sew the completed lining and dress together as much as you can (neckline and down the zipper for this one), get it all wrong sides together, make a slit in one of the longer lining seams (I used the skirt back), reach in with your hand, pull the fabric out through the slit so it's right sides together, and stitch all your hems.  Sounds easy, right?  Making it make SENSE physically is the hard part.

Here's what it looked like as I was sewing it:

Big, tangled, off-white, silk mess, right?

But when I finished and fixed the sagging problem, it was beautiful and perfect.  I hand-sewed the slit in the lining closed while I was at Emily's apartment to deliver it to her.

You can't really see the dress details in this particular picture, but trust me:  Emily was gorgeous, and it wasn't just the dress. :) It was a privilege to sew it for her!