It was a near thing. I almost gave up on finishing this dress. The last few days before my brother’s wedding just flew by. In between end-of-the-year school activities, visits from out-of-towners, shopping, wrapping presents, and packing, there just wasn’t much time for sewing.

Next time I’m in a rush, I now know better than to sew chiffon. It’s utterly gorgeous, but needs to be handled with a gentle and confident touch. Chiffon frays; it morphs into strange shapes that resist matching pattern pieces; it runs like nylons if you snag it; and worst of all, if you have an unreliable iron, it can MELT. Guess what I managed to do? Yes, I melted the fabric and had to redo the bodice, when there were only a few hours left before my scheduled departure.

I finshed sewing in the lining by hand while we drove to Montana. That part went pretty smoothly and it was a great way to pass the time.

Unfortunately, just after I put the last stitch in, I attempted to zip up the back of the dress and the lining got caught in the zipper. Robert helped extract the fabric from the metal teeth, but couldn’t avoid creating a little hole in it. I cried. Robert apologized, even though it wasn’t his fault, and reminded me that the hole was on the inside of the dress, not the outside. I fixed that with a little bit of Fray-Check, and wore the dress with pride.

My review of the pattern can be found here.