all photos by myself, taken with my Nikon camera in the Strada Filippo Maria Guidi, Guardia Sanframondi, Italia

Ciao dearest Needlework folks... I promise, this is the final post of this finished apron-dress!

I have already shared two posts about this project, but now needed to share the final final final details, because I actually have been working on it a LOT in the past weeks - fully by hand - to correct some specific aspects which were preventing me from really enjoying it as a perfect garment!

Most notably, the straps, which are double, black and white, and which come from the top of the front bib, into a single strap which buttons at the back to the waistband:

These straps went through multiple changes, and finally settled into this lovely chiaroscuro effect, once I'd added this chest dart (above) and decided NOT to chop the sides into a straight line.

The sides of the bib were a tad un-neat for me, and I wanted them to be more fitted: putting in the second, silk, black strap helped tighten the sides of the bib onto the form. It helped very much at this point, that I had just acquired my first tailor's mannequin! This made a huge difference to how I was able to correct the tensions in the straps.

I love how it sits right. I added a lot of hand-stitching along the edges of the white straps, as I imagined wearing the dress, and having a white top underneath it - and how this would lose the details, if I didn't 'underline' them.

I took a lot of time to think and feel into the project, between the last update and this one; it took me a lot of letting go, to just listen to the garment and let the natural, easy form of it come out.

As you can see here (the petals on the cobbles were a nice detail that I wanted to include: there was a religious event in the street last evening), I also made some handstitching emphasis on the lower hem of the outer white skirt portion, too. This helped tie it together with the rest of the garment - rather than it being a big white sheet-like skirt part. This took a long time to sew! I did it whilst having an aperitivo and then after Sunday lunch at Maria's house. 😍 I've been doing a lot of social sewing lately, and really enjoy being out in public/ company when I'm working by hand.

Above it another of the important details which helped the bodice form nicely. I made two darts into the top of the bib; this involved being super careful to folk it along the patterns, and stitch it very neatly and solidly in place.

And this is a close-up of the two tiny shiny buttons which originally really attracted me to the first black silk apron...

...them and the pockets - I adore pockets!! These were just divine, and I immediately snapped up the 50c bargain, knowing that alone the black silk apron was awfully small and long-thin, but that I could incorporate it into something else, and make the very most of the beautiful aspects it had.

In the end, the apron-dress has elements of at least 4 other garments in it! The whole skirt part - black and white - are layered double: two layers of black silk and two layers of thin white cotton. (I might still layer the top bodice too.) The layering seemd important, as the outer black skirt was very fragile, and the back white part was too see-through.

A final snap of the complex stitching that I machine-sewed into the waistband back at the beginning: I wanted to be certain that the elastic would be held in place firmly!

Enjoy your needleworkfoussing challenge, dear friends! I hope that you appreciate my efforts with improving my photography!!

😇

LoVe!

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