Most of the Dress Cut, Basting and Thread Tracing Begun

No dressmaking photos today, but here's what happened over the weekend: I finished cutting the fabric first (I still need to cut the foundation lining, but for now I'll think of myself as being finished).  Then, I used my Saral white tracing paper from the art store to mark the dress underlining pieces.  Working one piece at a time, I traced, placed the satin, pinned, flipped and then basted the two layers together using my YLI silk thread (only the Japanese brands are fine enough for basting in lightweight silks) and the Japanese hand needles I got from Susan Khalje's website.  There were some wavy bits in the lines I traced on the skirt sections, so I'll need to straighten those out before I baste the seams, but I am not stressing about that at this point.  I was relieved that it is not so hard to see the white tracing marks on the ivory fabrics, but also relieved that it's pretty hard to see unless you look.

So, after finishing the dress pieces, I started on the two layers of cotton broadcloth that I am using for the foundation.  One I cut on the grain and the other on the cross-grain, to make it just a bit sturdier. 

Here are links to the materials I used:
Japanese hand needles (and thread, hook/eye tape, boning, button loops, silk charmeuse, organza, crepe de chine, and more)
YLI silk basting thread - CreateforLess carries the thread in many colors and two different weights.  This is in the color natural, just like my fabrics!
SARAL white tracing paper - This is 12.5" by 12 feet, way better than shifting around those 6" by 18" slips of paper.  It's about $10 for this long sheet.  I have it in graphite and white, but it is also available in yellow, blue, and red.

My other weekend project was to make some alfajores.  I love caramel and dulce de leche, so this seemed the perfect choice!  They turned out all right, the lemon zest was great, but the odd combination of 1/2 and 1/2 flour to corn starch gave the shortbread an odd smooth element to their powderiness, so I'm going to pick a new shortbread recipe next time.  The cookies were also a bit too thick. Anyway, I needed to roll out the dough, and so true to a crafty spaceship where my dining table is also my sewing table and kitchen counter, I had to figure out how to roll out the dough without getting bits stuck in the crevices of my table pads (slash ironing board slash cutting table).  Solution: my self-healing cutting mat!  The rules were perfect for cutting evenly sized and shaped cookies.  :-)  The cutting mat was also another great deal: 36" x 48" for abut $35.  I got it at Utrecht (they don't have the same brand in this size any more, but they have another at another good price) Art Supplies.