Alabama Chanin Stitching

Here is Meg's dress that I finished on Sunday night. I love the Alabama Chanin designs which are so customizable! Meg wanted a simple dress, and this dress, while it has 6 gores, is pretty simple. The only embellishment is the embroidery on all the seams. She didn't want any appliques which are an Alabama Chanin trademark.

The big problem we have with dresses is that my Margie has long legs and the already-too-short styles in the stores are even worse on her and not at all appropriate for Mass (or anything else, in my opinion). When I cut out this dress, I added an extra inch or so---using the marking for the next size up.

She chose the blue because she loves Cinderella, and we added the cap sleeves for Mass and the the princess look.

She also chose the pretty rosebud stitch in silver floss for embellishment. It's lovely, but it took 3 days of intensive stitching and binge-watching! All the seams are hand-sewn with very sturdy button-craft thread, and  assembly took a little more than one full day. It's much faster to whip together on a machine, but the simple running stitch was pleasant to do and you don't run into any issues of accidentally stretching the material as you sew. I found the sleeves much easier to do by hand than by machine!

It's funny that so many hours go into the assembly and embellishing, but then no hemming is required on the sleeves or skirt! Such a fun project! I have a couple of dresses of my own that I'm also working on now, and more material to make her another skirt.