Summer dress with flower brooch

Difficulty level Beginner
Time to Complete Weekend
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Instruction:

Enjoy the summer with endless compliments! You will need your own self-stitched summer dress made from fine satin with a large floral brooch and wonderful decorative ribbons. A matching ruffle clutch makes a great addition.

Sew in the sleeves, side seams:

  1. Finish the lower edges of the satin sleeves with Vari-Overlock Stitch #3 using Overlock Foot #2. Turn under for a narrow hem and stitch in place.  (Alternatively: Using a BERNINA Serger, serge a rolled hem finish.)
  2. Lay the mesh sleeves flush on the upper edge of the satin sleeves and machine baste the layers together. Similarly, lay the mesh fabrics for the front and back neckline edge on top of each other and machine baste the layers together.
  3. Sew the sleeves to the front and back piece and at the same time sew in the mesh fabric. Close the side seams.

Neck rounding:
  1. Lay the chiffon strips (or other fine fabric strips) for the neckline on top of each other and gather into a 30 cm long ruffled strip. Stitch this to the left neckline edge. From the bias tape for the neckline, turn under the seam allowance at the short ends and top-stitch in place. With the right sides together, sew the bias tape to the neckline. Turn back the bias tape to the wrong side of the garment along the stitching line enclosing the seam allowance. Top-stitch the bias tape in place moving the mesh fabric upward and only sewing the bias tape to the satin fabric so that the seam is not visible from the front. (If needed, run elastic thread through the neck binding to create a closer fit.)
  2. With the right sides together, sew the bias tape to the lower armholes. Turn back the bias tape to the wrong side of the garment along the stitching line enclosing the seam allowance. Top-stitch in place.
  3. Sew the elastic thread into the waistline using the Braiding Foot #21 and the Universal Stitch. Adjust the elastic to size and tie the elastic at an appropriate length.
  4. Seam the dress.

Flower brooch:
  1. For the flower, fold each fabric strip in half lengthwise (wrong sides together) and sew the edges together using the longest stitch length. Gather each strip by gently pulling the lower (bobbin) thread, adjusting the gathers to produce a uniform ruffled strip.
  2. Combine all of the strips spirally into a flower and adjust until it reaches a diameter of approximately 13 cm. Sew the strips to the back piece by hand. Slide the feathers between the fabric layers and sew together or secure with some glue.
  3. Fuse the circle for the base with a firm fusible interfacing. Turn the fused circle base under 1 cm all around and top-stitch in place. Sew the circle onto the jewelry pin back in the upper area.

Belt:
  1. Knot the 4 strips together at one end and braid into a long band to achieve a double-wrap belt. If needed for length, braid a second set of strips weaving the ends into the first set of strips.
  2. Make knots at the desired length and let the strips hang loosely.
  3. Sew some feathers to the ends.