Invisible Zippers in Lined Dresses and Biking

Well first, the thing I'm most proud of this weekend: I've pedaled 15 miles this weekend! There's a big community push for sidewalks to make the area more walkable, and Lucas's friends were on the news because they raised some money for it, plus one of their moms is in charge of fund-raising, so he's all fired up about riding his bike to school - 2.5 miles away with some busy streets. The good news is that there is a sidewalk all the way and the busiest intersection has awesome crosswalks and signals. The bad news is that a lot of the sidewalk is narrow and about 6 feet away from the traffic, and one cross-street is a weird intersection where you have to walk the bike across and avoid people turning there who don't look. The ride takes 26 minutes (we've done 3 practice runs so far), and he's determined to get up at 5:30 if necessary to do this thing. Despite the look of pain, he was thrilled when we got there yesterday.


Our last run was with a loaded backpack, and we stopped at a local hardware store to buy bike locks, then had lunch at the local burger joint. He said he felt like we were homeless people, which sheds light on what a lousy city this is for walk-ability, and he said that lunch was the best he'd had all week because we worked so hard for it. So many lessons in this one weekend!


Which brings me to my sewing lessons. And why is this new to me - I just made a fully lined Mardi Gras dress with invisible zipper! Anyway, here's the rough draft.


I should've lengthened the bodice, but I adapted by redoing the waist seam with 1/4" bodice seam allowance and regular skirt allowance. Plus I fixed the puckers.


And why do all my darts poof these days? So here's the new waist seam, but I tried a belt that was lying around to see how it looks (obviously the wrong color).


I love the Helen Crump collar, but I'll have to press it down once I get the folds just right.


So I looked in a Sew News that had an article on perfect-fitting skirts, and guess what? Their darts poof too!


I think they told her to pose this way to cover up the poof.


Oh, so here's a really great tutorial on linings and invisible zippers, and I'm trying this out tomorrow. Right now Lucas wants to go for a fourth ride. And I have to go to bed early, because I'm riding with him tomorrow for his first run - whee!