Hokuto Sumeragi - Mad Hatter #65

the jacket's skirt appliqués

Today I made good progress! First I cut around 8m bias tape, phew! But then I remembered, I need to sew on the jacket skirt's appliqués before sewing the bias tape. So, I cut the corners, then I used the card stock template as a guide, and ironed the seam allowance in, for four of the appliqués. My ironing board is a bit low, so I can't iron for very long, or my back hurts... so, I did it for half of them.

pinned appliqués

Then I calculated where the appliqués would start, marked and and traced four perpendicular lines. After I pinned them, I realised two things, I would need to shift them up about 2cm, or else they wouldn't be evenly spaced with the bottom bias tape; and they couldn't be at a 90° angle, because of the curved hem and pointy waist. I adjusted them with the help of pins, and started sewing the top appliqué, with a ladder or invisible stitch. When I was reaching the arrow point, I realised the "straight" seam was all wobbly. I had to unpick the seam and start over, almost from the beginning. To prevent it to be wobbly, first I added a lot of pins, along the edge, and instead of picking the fabric in my hand to sew, I sewed it on top of my cutting board, so the fabric would stay flat.

top appliqué is sewn (but not pressed)
and the others pinned

It worked.

+ after all the fussing, it worked nicely, and my guess is it will go quicker than I first thought.

- argh for flimsy fabrics, I hope my next costume has none!

THE CUNNING PLAN 

To sew at least one arrow appliqué per evening, and start with the bias tape. Mental note, I need to sew the skirt buttons before adding the bias tape.