Sew nearly there

Trimming the seam allowance after sewing and cutting notches in the remaining seam allowance around the curves - which apparently helps the seams sit better.

Tuesday night was the last of my 8 week 'dressmaking' course. I had hoped I would completely finish the baby pinnafore I started making 3 weeks ago and I nearly got there, I just need to do the buttonholes and sew the buttons on. Considering I've never done a buttonhole before it's kind of a crucial element, but in the last 5 minutes of the class the teacher (Kim) quickly showed me how to do it on a scrap piece of fabric, and armed with my sewing machine's instruction booklet, I'll do some practice buttonhole runs and hopefully get the pinnafore fully finished this weekend. It was a magic revelation seeing the machine do the buttonhole, all you have to do is measure the button width and mark it on the fabric, turn the dial at the appropriate times, put your foot down, and the machine does the rest! I wonder how you do a hand sewn buttonhole? I bet it takes a million times longer.

Here is a sneak peek at the almost finished product:

It needs to be washed and ironed. All in good time. I was too impatient to wait, I had to take photos asap. But of course there will be more photos once it's been washed and ironed and with the buttons on.

Look at that HEM - a significant improvement on last week's attempt. Also, I still love the two fabrics together, they please me greatly.

I am glad I did the dressmaking course, it wasn't quite what I thought it would be but it forced me to sew for two hours once a week which I'd love to try to keep up. I said in my feedback form that I thought it would be good if they spent the first 15 minutes of every class teaching a new technique - how to read a pattern one week, how to put in a zip the next, how to do darts, how to do button holes etc. It's those things that put me off most of the time and I still don't feel entirely confident in my zip abilities. But practice makes perfect so I'm going to try to keep hauling the sewing machine out as regularly as my busy schedule allows!