A Navy Campi

So the second Campi inspired dress for camping is nearly finished (It's got temporay lacing strips basted in. I still need to stitch the eyelets for lacing and plan to work on that on my upcoming road trip.) This one is made from navy linen interlined with cotton twill and trimmed with berry colored bias tape. I did this one with side lacing and a gathered rather than pleated waist thinking it would be faster and easier than the front closing cartridge pleated dress. Boy, was I wrong! I got everything cut out and the bodice pieces sewn last week without incident then set it aside while waiting for my "new" sewing machine to be delivered. I picked it back up again and started triming the bodice. It took alot of pins to hold the trim in place. The sewing machine needle kept hitting the pins. I had to replace the needle four times, running to the store to buy more, before I got the trim sewn on. Then I started the skirt. I decided to go with three panels as I did with the other skirt and french seamed them together. When I went to start gathering the skirt I discovered that I had twisted one of the panels when I sewed them together. So I got to undo a french seam, untwist, and resew. The next step was the gather the skirt and sew it to the bodice. I decided to sew one panel to the front of the bodice and two to the back because I like my skirts full and swishy but didn't want too much fullness over the tummy. I had to gather the back as tight as possible and it just barely fit, any more fabric and it wouldn't have worked. When I sewed the skirt to the bodice I didn't pin the lining far enough out of the way so I had tp pick out and restitch about half of the back. Then I decided I didn't like the way some of the gathers looked so I picked it out and redid it yet again. And yeah- lots of pins meant two more broken needles. Last night I sewed the trim to the bottom and this morning I pinned it up and stitched the hem. I like how the bias tape trim adds just the right amount of stiffness to the hem that it hangs in nice folds. I measured the skirt length to be the same as the first dress but somehow the bodice ended up a bit longer so the hem is just barely off the ground. I would have preferred it about an inch shorter but I am NOT redoing it!