Maggie's dress just needs facings tacked, the lacing in the back and a hem. I ended up doing quite a bit of the tiny upper sleeve work by hand (the trim part marks the bottom of the upper sleeve; the hanger is too large to let the sleeve hang as it will when the dress is worn). Though four years old now, Magdalena Hope, her parents say, only weighs about 30 pounds; she's tiny like her mom was (and is!). The sleeves were too small to fit over the free arm of the machine. And when I tried sewing from the inside of the sleeve, the space was just too small to handle. I spent two evenings doing a job that ended up taking only an hour or so by hand.
Eliza, who is 50 pounds and almost six, will have a slightly larger sleeve; we'll see if I can do it on the machine or if I'll also do it by hand. After the experience I had with Maggie's, I won't try too hard to do Eliza's on the machine. If I can't do it fairly easily by machine, I'll just do it by hand as well. My hand sewing seems to be as strong and secure as the machine work (and before sewing machines were invented, all sewing was done by hand and held; so why shouldn't mine?)
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