It's officially the last little bit of sewing your Amélie Dress! All that remains are those finishing touches before you are ready to add your new garment to your closet.
Try on your dress and pin along the markings for the buttonholes to make sure that you like their placement. You can stick with what I recommend as far as button size and placement go, or you can switch it up and add more or less!
I highly recommend making your Waistband and Back Bodice buttonholes horizontal so that it locks into your button while you are wearing your garment rather than stretching out and letting your button fall out! Either vertical or horizontal buttonholes will work along the placket.
When actually sewing the buttonholes, follow your sewing machine’s instructions as each machine is slightly different. Be sure to test on a swatch of the fabric you are using before sewing on your final garment.
Once your buttonholes are complete, use a button hole chisel, xacto knife, or seam ripper to carefully cut them open.
When using a seam ripper or xacto knife, I like to put a pin at the top edge of my buttonhole- that way, if my hand slips, I don’t accidentally ruin my beautiful new buttonhole. Something I have done more often than I care to admit!
Now it's time to mark your button placement. I like to mark my button placement by laying the buttonhole piece over the button placket then marking through them with chalk or a Frixion pen or a set of pins. I mark directly in the center of my Placket buttonholes and towards the far edge of my Waistband buttonholes.
You can now sew on your buttons.
The other, easier option is to totally nix buttons all together and instead sew in snaps! They are a great alternative if you don’t have the option of sewing buttonholes.
And finally, we come to our last step — Hemming the skirt!
Before we do any actual hemming, I wanted to mention something about circle skirts, or skirts that have any part of them cut on the bias. Did you know that a skirt that has a portion of its piece cut on the bias can actually grow? So, it is actually best to let a skirt -- such as the Amélie -- "hang" for a few days before finishing the hem.
By hanging your skirt, you allow the edges a chance to stretch out. Once they have fully stretched, you can then re-level your hem! If you skip this step, that's totally ok, you just might wind up with a hem that is longer on the sides than it is in the front and back.
For a more in-depth view of leveling your skirt, feel free to check out the Amelie Sewalong Video Part 2 (Coming to Youtube February 23rd).
Press up the bottom edge of your skirt by 1/2” (1,3 cm) then another 1/2” (1,3 cm). Sew along the upper folded edge.
Et Voila! You have officially completed your Amélie! Go ahead and take a spin - after all, it was designed to be the twirliest of all dresses!
