Woohoo! I got tickets!

Igbo Girls' Night is on tonight! A group of my Igbo girlfriends try to get together about 3 or 4 times a year to hang out. We all originate from different states in Igboland, and ordinarily we wouldn't have had a chance to meet and known each other except for fate. All of our parents immigrated to the U.S. from Nigeria during the early '70s and at some point ended up in the north Texas area. Well, as you can imagine, there weren't too many Igbos in Texas at that time, so the few families that were here clung to, helped, and socialized with each other. We girls "grew up" together as "cousins," though we don't share a drop of common blood! As life would have it, we all went our separate ways -- to college, to travel, to married life -- but eventually we all ended up back here in the Dallas area. So now we get together and have fun, talk about living a neo-African life in America, and boys (of course).

So tonight, for Igbo Girls' Night, I got us tickets to see Sex in the City at Studio Movie Grill. Studio Movie Grill is a great place for dinner & a movie -- they have a full-service dinner menu and serve adult beverages. I tried to get these tickets a few weeks ago, but all the showings were sold out. Fortunately, the Dallas location scheduled a couple of extra showings for opening night, so we are in!!! This is especially exciting because 2 years ago when one of us got married we threw a Sex in the City bridal shower for her. We stayed up all night drinking Cosmos, giggling at her haul of sexy wedding night lingerie, and watching the first 5 seasons of the show.

Processed: She wants more ...

Well I finished the nightgown in time to give it to my Mom for Mother's Day today. I made Simplicity 4048 and my Mom just loved it! I knew she would like it because this type of gown is her favorite -- as my DBF says "the more lace the better." In her younger days while in nursing school, my Mom would keep any extra money (after paying school fees) that her Dad sent to her and head to Marks & Spencer to buy a nice cotton gown, an embroidered handkerchief, or yet another pair of knit cotton eyelet panties. Nowadays, anyone who travels to England must bring back something for her from Marks & Spencer (though I was there last year and found that the quality has really gone downhill, IMHO). I wish you could have seen the expression on her face when she opened the gift, but she didn't want to be posted on my blog. It was a priceless, precious moment, though.

I made a combo of view B & C, but left off the 7inch ruffle at the bottom since my Mom is only 5'4" and this gown "as is" was long on me at 5'9". The fabric is a lovely 100% cotton batiste with white-on-white embroidery of flowers & vines that I found at Hobby Lobby. I guess I wasn't paying attention when the lady cut it (or when I pre-washed it), because as I was pressing it prior to cutting out the gown I found that the fabric was joined (off-grain) right in the middle of my yardage! Not to worry, the front & back pieces fit nicely on one end of the goods, while the yoke pieces fit on the other end (after I straightened the grain). I also ended up with a good 1.25 yards left over (so maybe the cutting lady did notice the join & gave me extra to accommodate for it).

The gown was easy to put together, except for the fiddly construction bits here and there. Attaching the yoke was the most difficult part as it required quite a bit of precise sewing to look right. I had to clip the inside corners of the yoke to within a hair of their little lives in order to get a sharp corner when I turned it right side out. In fact, I had to go in and clip some more to get rid of the ugly puckers. Topstitching everything down also helped -- its a nightgown after all, so I didn't feel too bad about the remaining puckers.

"good" corner (l); "bad" corner (r)

One of my sewing goals is to use/learn a new-to-me or couture technique in each project I complete. I really stretched this time and used a number of techniques. I interfaced the yoke with silk organza -- everything else I tried just seemed too stiff to be comfortable in a nightgown. I kept every last scrap of that organza after cutting out the yoke -- that stuff is expensive.

I was even able to use a tiny scrap to stabilize the areas where I joined the lace to itself at the shoulder and hem.

I used French seams on this gown. I even French seamed the shoulders, though I realized much later that the shoulder seams would be totally encased by the yoke facing. Oh well, it was good practice.

I made my own bias binding for the armhole facings from the fashion fabric. The pattern suggests purchased bias binding. I bought some, but it was uhhggg. After making my own binding, I promptly attached it incorrectly, but decided to forgo the "ribbit" stitch and "make it work." Thankfully, the lace mostly covers it and provides a pretty distraction from the sewing snafus.

I went out on my own with the embellishment. I started with just lace around the yoke per view A, but it was just blah and a bit overkill at the same time. Then I tried lace just on the outer edge of the yoke, but that look lacked pizzaz. So, I added a strip of jacquardy-satiny looking ribbon and topstitched the neck edge of the yoke. Then I repeated the lace/ribbon trim combo at the hem. For the hem, I attached the ribbon to the lace before sewing it to the hem that I had already double-folded, pressed & machine basted down.
After pressing the gown one last time, I didn't like how the cotton lace curled up and knew that it would curl even worse after a few wearings & launderings. So I eventually went back to bartack the corners of the yoke and do some additional topstitching on the armholes.

All in all, a great Mother's Day gift which was well-received. Even my Dad was impressed! I guess I have to review this one on PatternReview now (hi SewShy!). LOL!