[Nicole]

I am making this dress https://www.flickr.com/photos/motherof5/16120786621/ for my cousin and as the voile is so light I have added a bemsilk skirt lining. The zipper is added after the skirt is attached so what I normally do in this case is treat the lining and main as one, the fabric is light enough that with some gentle pressing it works.
Does anyone have a suggestion how I can leave the skirt lining loose when sewing in the zipper and then hand sew it, bearing in mind I was hoping to put the skirt main and lining wrong sides together and attach then to the main bodice, the bodice lining then covering the raw waist edge.
Clear as mud?

If anyone can make out what I am on about and help, that would be awesome!

Thank you!

xx N

• This topic was modified 9 years ago by Nicole.

[with love Heidi]

Can you not sew the lining for the last little bit near the zip, pin it out of the way, insert the zip and then sew the lining to the zip?

[Lightning McStitch]

Given that you have a bodice and skirt lining, how about this…
Sew the dress as per instructions with the zipper.
Sew the bodice lining to the skirt lining only.
Leave a basted area in the lining side seam where the zipper is.
Once it’s all constructed and the closed lining dress is hanging free inside the main dress, unpick the basted lining and handstitch it to the zipper. (The zipper won’t be covered, unless you try and create an internal zipper sheath thingy.)
Then, stitch in the ditch around the rest of the waistline to secure the dress and lining at the waistband. Or an invisible hand stitch if you suck at ditch stitching as I do.
Would that work?

[meleliza]

Yes, that’s what I would do. Keep the lining entirely free except at the neckline. Attach lining skirt to lining bodice and then attach the lining to the zip on the inside. For some dresses And an invisible zip, I do this with the machine, though sometimes hand stitching is just as quick, depending on how you must contort things to get them under the machine.

[Nicole]

You girls are the best!

I went with the lining attached to the bodice and then did a few cm’s stitch-in-the-ditch sewing at the front back and side seam.
I hand sewed the lining to the zipper.

Thank you so much, I was pretty much flummoxed on this on and it turned out so nicely.

[Nicole]

I finally got around to blogging it
http://fiveandcounting-motherof5.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/a-stitched-thank-you.html

Thank you, again, so much Girls.