Purple Pocket Power

Nothing spectacularly exciting happened here this weekend, so I'm going to show you the purple corduroy dress I cut out for my Fairy Girl a while ago. As usual, I used an old op shop pattern and tweaked it to suit, so I'm pretty happy with it - in fact it was all thrifted, even the zipper! I had just enough of the cord fabric but had to cut the front one way and the back another, which means that the 'nap' of the fabric is different from front to back and is noticeable in certain light. It's only an everyday dress so it's not drastic but generally I like to keep my pattern pieces all going the same way. If you automatically do this every time you cut out a garment , then you wont have any problems with the patterned fabrics or those with a 'nap' like corduroy or velvets. 

You can see in this photo what I mean about the 'nap' or 'pile' of the fabric - not terrible but not something you want on a dress for fancy occasions! Oh and excuse the wrinkles..... she was in a hurry to wear it with those shiny red shoes!! 

Just thought I'd show another little hint - about pockets. Starting on one side with the opening towards the back of the machine, stitch down about a centimetre (1/2 inch for any US readers) then angle it slightly and stitch again going backwards as shown. Then down again and backwards back up to the beginning to stop anything from unravelling. When you get to the other top side do the same. This gives the pockets a little extra strength when small hands stuff treasures into them !!! 

I'm just rereading this and it is a bit hard to follow, but try it on the sewing machine and I'm sure you'll work it out! Let me know if this was a help.