Third time lucky?

Well, I'm hoping it will be. In more ways than one. I'm making Vogue 9546 again, for the third time.

From 1942

My first version was always, shall we say, 'form fitting', and now it's very tight indeed. (To be fair, it is not far off 12 years old.) Much as I like the two-fabric approach that I took the second time, I decided that I wanted to go back to a single colour. And the colour I have chosen is black, also for the third time.

This may be unwise as I do not have a good track record with black garments. Butterick 7598 has stuttered along since spring 2022, and last saw any progress a year ago. The sequin-embellished version of Butterick 6866 has fared even worse, having remained untouched since its single blog post two years ago. But in a triumph of hope over experience, I dug a black remnant out of the stash and set to.

Everything went smoothly in making the three separate elements; blouse, skirt, and midsection. Where it started to unravel was in putting them together. The midsection is attached by folding the top and bottom seam allowances under, laying it over the piece to be joined, and sewing through all three layers - a common 1940s technique. When I made the second version, I followed a tip from @ms1940mccall and used an open-toe foot to keep the stitching parallel to the midsection edge.

The folded edge rests against the foot

Since then, I have switched from sewing on my electric Jones machine to using my Singer treadle. I did a sample just to make sure the principle still worked - and hit an unexpected problem. The fabric has a slight bloom on it, and the foot left an obvious mark on the top layer.

The mark was impossible to remove

I set up my Jones - relieved to find that it still worked - and tried again. This time the foot left the mark on the bottom layer! In desperation I tried sewing with the normal foot, and to my relief that worked fine. But now I had another issue. Trying to sew black onto black with a narrow, even seam in black thread was 'taxing', to put it mildly. Fortunately, running a line of long tacking stitches along the folded edge gave me something to focus on when sewing.

The tacking is just visible under the foot

With the three sections sewn together, things were progressing nicely.

Starting to look like a dress

Until . . .

One drawback of a side zip is that it's often set into a curved seam. So the seam allowances have to be snipped to allow them to lie flat. While I was sealing the snipped overlocked edges, I somehow managed to drip a whole lot of Fray Check onto the back of the dress itself.

Aaargh!

Obviously, the whole point of Fray Check is that it doesn't wash out. An internet search suggested that it could be removed with certain types of alcohol, so I created another large stain on a fabric scrap, and cautiously dabbed it with a cotton bud soaked in surgical spirit. I had no idea of the fabric's composition so half expected it to dissolve into a puddle of bubbling black gloop. I was pretty much resigned to some complex dress surgery to replace the damaged sections - at least I've done something similar before.

To my amazement and relief, it worked. I repeated the process on the dress, and once it was dry I soaked the area in some no-rinse detergent solution to remove any residue.

After treatment

I might give it a second go to see if I can remove the last bits. Or, on the basis that it's on the back of the dress and the stain is now barely visible, I might quit while I'm ahead and get on with finishing the dress. Hopefully without any more drama.