Piped Pastille

Needs a pressing but TA-DA!

I'm finally getting a chance to blog about my finished Pastille!

As mentioned before I added piping to my Pastille in the neckline, the sleeves, and used piping instead of doing the pleats on the skirt. After much debate I decided to use a french blue cotton lycra poplin from my stash, it seems to have enough body but the stretch will be nice for some extra ease. The piping on the skirt is a little stiff so I am debating how to fix it - as you can see the picture, it kinda sticks out. I am considering serging off some of the excess on the inside of the skirt. Any thoughts?

I made bias tape with an off white cotton from my stash using the tutorial here. Though the Coletterie has a post also, I just didn't come across this one first when I was double checking that I was doing it right.

Stitching the piping to the skirt.

I had sewn the back seam up from the hem to the large dot for the zipper to make sure everything would line up correctly. I folded the "pleat" to the inside of the skirt and pressed the lines to give me a visible line on the right side of the fabric. I then un-picked the back seam at the new pleat/piping lines I had adjusted for the piping. I pin basted the piping on with the cut edge of the bias tape going into the fold. I stitched the piping onto one side of the fold as seen in above picture. I went back and folded the "pleat" over the piping to enclose the tape (I now wish I had trimmed the bias tape down) and stitched again as close to the piping as I could, using my zipper foot. As seen below the piping worked quite nicely. I made sure to pull out the cording from the piping and trimmed it down so it wouldn't be caught in the seam before I re-stitched the back seam.

Back seam turned out pretty good.

Skirt with piping, I need to re-stitch the hem with a matching thread.

Back - needs a good pressing.

Bodice with SBA.

I like the fit of the dress but I think the piping in the sleeves makes the sleeves stick out more than they are supposed to, giving it a shoulder pad look. I am planning on unpicking the underarm seam so I can pull the cording out of the piping. I think doing that will loosen it up enough that it doesn't stick out from my shoulder quite so much but will leave the white edge to match the neckline and skirt detailing.

Upper back - I used an invisible zipper, much easier to install than a regular one! Still need to sew on a hook and eye.

So this is my version of the Pastille. I feel like I learned some things and added to my sewing repertoire. I am eagerly awaiting the warmer weather.