Queen Mattress Update!
Where I left off: I used a tracing wheel and newspaper to transfer all of the daytime pieces to foundation paper templates. For each 'unit', I made one copy for sewing, and another as a cutting template. I started with the center of the sun, and then did the sun-rays, but did NOT sew them together (yet). At first, I included some darker sky fabrics, but after a bit of consideration, decided they were not the correct value. I seam ripped them out, and replaced them with lighter shades of blue.
After those sections were finished, I began cutting my sky fragments. I had a system where I started with the fabric I had the least of, and wrote down every place I intended to use it. It actually kind of felt like I was a waiter taking orders :P I would go into the living room with a pad of paper and a pen (my sewing room table was not big enough to lay it out), and I would start listing 'coordinates'--like, "okay, the floral fabric will go on A1, A15, A40, B17…" I was trying to get a good dispersion of each fabric type and avoid the same pattern being placed next to itself. Once I was out of my more limited fabrics, I moved on to the ones I had an excess of, and filled in the rest of the gaps. At some point I became fed up with my cat running across my work and scattering all the pieces, so I moved it to my room where I could shut the door. It was at this point it actually felt like I was making a Queen Mattress dress because it legitimately started to look like a bed spread.
Once it was all cut out, I started to sew. I worked one 'ray' at a time, doing a first pass with all my smaller foundation patterns, then sewing those together, recursively until it was all one piece. My partner Zak said this was just like "when you let molten metal cool and form back into a solid!" A bit of a stretch, but I liked the analogy nonetheless. It did feel like I was forging armor.
After all six 'rays' were complete, I could finally put it all together. I had left the sun-rays for last because I figured it would be easier to manipulate it to fit around a curve if it wasn't attached to the center sun, which was sewn on last.
I was then able to finally sew the two 'night' and 'day' halves together!
I contacted the longarm quilter to tell her the good news and go over the plan one more time. I outlined where the backing and batting would start and end. I also sewed the two different backing pieces together and basted extra fabric along the top for easier mounting onto the machine. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of this step :/ I was kind of in a rush to get them over to her. The deadline is fast approaching after all! Twelve days left to go. Will I make it?
When I dropped off the dress with her, I stayed a bit longer just to make sure everything was aligned how it needed to be, but after that, I finally left the rest up to the professional. I appreciate that she let me stay as long as I did to give me peace of mind :) I should be getting it back on Wednesday! Much sooner than I expected, but probably needed if I'm being honest.
I will leave you with a picture of the dress pleated up and roughly pinned onto the form. See you on the 26th for the big reveal!
