Feliz sew-along: The Overdress

Various parts of this sew-along can be found here:

Feliz part 1: Yardage
Feliz part 2: Prep
Feliz part 3:Overdress
Feliz part 4: Underdress
Feliz part 5: Straps and final assembly

Here we go!
(Remember, you can click on any of these pictures to enlarge them if needed)

Today i'm going to tackle the overdress or apron part of the dress. My pieces are cut out and here is the overdress laid out in pieces

First step is to sew the ties for the back of the dress.

Fold them in half and iron them, that makes them nice and flat and easy to sew.
Then I sew them on one short end. I follow Nancy's tip and insert a piece of ribbon into that seam.

Then I turn and sew the tie on the long side with the ribbon sandwiched in between the two halves of the tie. Be careful not to catch the ribbon in the seam - keep it to the other side as you sew. Here are my ties. Now if you pull on the ribbon you can easily turn the tie right-side-out. You don't have to use the ribbon, you can use a loop turner or something else, but this method is quick and easy.Snip off the ribbon close to the seam, be careful not to cut your fabric!

Now take a turning tool and poke in one corner of the tie to the center. Press the tie.
Top stitch all the way around. Do this for both ties and set them aside for now.

NOTE: If you plan to add any embroidery, applique or other embellishments to the overdress, now is a good time to do that. It is much easier to embroider on an unfinished garment. I am not doing any embroidery on this dress, so i'm going to keep sewing.

Take the facing piece and finish the long straight edge. Note you don't have to use this facing piece, Nancy suggests this if you are going to insert buttons. If you aren't using buttons you can just finish the edge of the side pieces, but I like the look of a facing better so I'm going to use it anyway, even though I'm not going to add buttons to my dress. I serged my raw edge and turned it over and pressed. Next I will topstitch it.

Lay the facing piece, right sides together, to the side dress pieces and sew this seam.
When you are done, your pieces should look like this.

Press the seam open and fold over the facing piece to wrong side of the side dress pieces and press. Topsitch the outside edge

Now we are going to sew the side seams of the overdress. Take the ties that you made and insert them into the side seam before you sew this seam. Pin in place. It might be a good idea to pin the free end as well just so it doesn't catch into your seam by accident. The ties should be on the wrong side of the dress, facing towards the back of the dress (towards the facing). Sew the seam. Be careful not to sew over the pins (you can baste the ties in place instead of pinning if you prefer)

When you are done it should look like this from the wrong sideand like this from the front.

Now press the seam allowance towards the center of the dress and topstitch.
Instead of topstitching, you could add some ribbon embellishment instead. I'm just topstitching this dress for now.

We are almost done. Next I'm going to hem the bottom of the dress. I fold over the raw edge twice. Since I used a 1/2 seam allowance, I'm going to fold over once at 1/4", press, then fold again at 1/4" and press again. Then I will sew this hem in place.


That is it for the overdress. We are done for now. Next time, we'll tackle the underdress.