Done with the sleeves, on with the buttonholes

I got all the machine sewing done today with my 70's Sweetness dress. The sleeves that I was a bit terrified to set in (propably because of the misfortune with the Swing Dress) actually went in without any problems. That is I only had to undo one little bit of the other sleeve seam because I had sewn it together with some bodice fabric (lol). 

Setting the sleeves with my trusted Jack the Seam Ripper by my side.

I sew the skirt pieces together and how easy what that! The skirt is a dirndl skirt so there was two rectangular pieces to sew together. After that it was time to gather the skirt waist and attach it to the bodice pieces. The gathering took some time because there was so much to gather, but in the end the seams were sewn together nice and neat. So after finishing the last zigzag seams on the skirt and bodice there's only handsewing left to do. 

Gathering the skirt.

I sew the side zipper in by hand to get a bit more practice on that technique. And then I started sewing the buttonholes. My intention was to follow Sunni's tutorial but in the end I followed the instructions from an old Finnish sewing book. The instructions are basically the same, but they don't require any special threads or gimps. I ended up using a double thread to ensure that the stiches were neat. I started at the bottom of the bodice because I figured that the first ugly ones would be easily covered with a belt and the last perfect ones would be the ones in the spot light (lol!). I've done three now, and it seems that it will truely become a line of evolution in button hole binding.

Handpicked zipper needing some ironing.

The evolution of the buttonholes. The best one so far on top.

The thread I used in the buttonholes is a find from my granny's stash. It's a 100 per cent cotton thread called "Rosethread" by Vaasan puuvilla. The factory was closed in 1964 but the thread is like new.

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Mekko edistyy kovaa vauhtia ja enää jäljellä on käsin ommeltavat viimeistelyt. Sain tänään tehtyä hihojen istutuksen ja hameen poimutuksen ja yhdistämisen yläosaan. Vetoketjun ompelin jo käsin ja läpinlävet ovat työn alla. Lisäksi aion viimeistellä hihat ja  helman käsin totuttuun tapaan. Käytin lapinläpien ompeluun vanhan käsityökirjan ohjeita: