The Blue Hemp Dress: a follow up on not finishing the seams.

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Yes, it works like a charm!  The fraying that you see here will not increase.  Hemp linin is self finishing!  5 washes and the edges bind together like soft Velcro. 

 

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To boot, the first three washes, iron while still fresh from the washing machine and the seams learns to stay open!  I only need to iron if I need it to look crisp from here on.  The shots of the seams above are fresh from the dryer with no ironing. The caveat is to pull the dress (hemp linen garment) from the dryer (not an overly full one to crush the garment)  as soon as it stops and hang it up.  Put on a hanger and Done.

 

Here are some shots of the zipper after

One wash after the ironing.

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three washes (still damp but drying) and after the ironing.thursday 005

Love it!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Joy

Joy is when you love something and it loves you back.

I LOVE coffee!  And it officially loves me back! 

 

Really!  Also I got 5lbs of Organic French roast bean from Bill and I got 5lbs of Organic French roast bean from Bill for Christmas.  That is a cool 10lbs of Organic coffee and that is a lot to love!  Love it when you know Bill and he knows that you love coffee!

A Blue Hemp Dress

First off, Dresses are so much easier than coats!Solstice finishings 002

I cut the dress out of a modified pattern of the coat.  Yes, the same but not the same.

I bought in the ease and lengthen the bottom to become a skirt.  I love the feel of the material swishing around my ankles so I made it a maxi.

I tucked up the sleeves from a gather to a tuck  and it falls nicely from the shoulders.  Solstice finishings 003

The dress is made of 55% Hemp and 45% organic cotton so it is a keeper. As this is hemp I have taken upon myself not to finish the seams in any way as hemp has a tendency to just act like Velcro when washed a few times at the raw edges.  So I am keeping my fingers crossed that whole dress doesn’t fall apart meantime.  If the raw edges do begin to deteriorate I will do a Hong Kong finish.  Only time will tell.

Start to finish 3hrs for the dress and 35hrs for the coat.  Dresses are so much easier!

Felted Wool coat is finished and warm for winter

coat 1Solstice finishings 007  Solstice finishings 005Just in time for Winter I finished the coat!

dec 20 13 011dec 20 13 017I removed the excess cotton lining from the sleeves and finished by folding the silk up and over the cotton and slip stitched to the wool. This stoke of laziness gave me a warm inner sleeve as the silk falls gently around my wrist.

I created hoops of hemp thread for the hooks at the top and waist. They work really well.dec 20 13 004dec 20 13 027

This was an overly long project but worth every bit.  The coat will keep me warm for our west coast winters!