Fiber Monday - The slowest dress making in the world

I have no idea why making this practice dress is taking me so long. It's not a difficult pattern. The fabric is pretty easy to work with. I know how to sew. Maybe the key is, I know how to sew, but it's been quite a few years since I did a lot of garment sewing. Maybe I'm still finding my groove. Or maybe I'm going slowly because when I finish this dress I have to cut into the handwoven fabric and that feels intimidating. It's probably all of the above, truthfully.

Whatever reason, I still don't have a completed dress. All the seams are finished with bias tape, the process seams are seen, I have even pinned it all together and tried it on (carefully) to check the fit. I think the fit is going to work well with the handwoven. The next step is to insert the zipper. 

Sigh. 

Inserting zippers is not my favorite thing. I can do it, I even took a fantastic class on it, but once again, it has been well over seven years since I've done it. Today had me poring over my class notes to remind me how to do it. I have a lot of zippers in my stash, do I shortened one of those, and now am taking a deep breath and starting to do the first basting. This feels like the last big hurdle before I see all the long seams and do the facings around the neck and arm holes. 

Could I have it done by next Monday? Boy, I hope so. Time is starting to feel a little short.

The inside of the dress front:


The zipper pinned to the seam allowance for the first basting. 



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