Constructing an Elegant Entari (part 5, The End!)

Author's Note:

I've been very bad. I left for a family trip over the entire week leading up to Thanksgiving weekend, and left this post here, finished, yet unpublished. Shame on me. So rather than rewrite the entire thing I'll just post it as it should have been posted, and leave some footnotes at the end.

Constructing an Elegant Entari (part 5, The End!)

It's finished, finally!

Well, finished for now that is. It needs a good run through the washer (which will happen in a week when I have access to a washing machine that won't destroy silk*) before I can stitch the appliques to it, and consequently each time it will need to be washed, it will probably have to have them removed, then replaced later.

 You're just going to have to wait, now aren't you?

I'm not sure how fond I am of that idea, but then again, if it's worn properly no one will have any issues or unnecessary cleanings.

I had a love-hate relationship with trimming this beast that leaned much more to the hate side of things if any. But I absolutely adore it now.

The fit has changed a bit because the trim ran out, so rather than being open over the hips as I had originally planned, it's closed to about thigh level. That said, it turned out for the better, because guess what else is closed over the hips?

Yep, so is the Yellow one that I took the sleeve design from.

Anyhow, the trim problem is also why this post has taken so long to come out, because despite closing the entari over the hips to save the trim so I had "enough" - well, I forgot about the collar and the rest of the neckline.

So what did I do?

I made more trim.

I spent a good two days making it, and the worst part, it's only a yard of it, and it doesn't really match the rest of the trim and when sewed, it got all wonky and frayed in some areas (I now have gold threads hanging out of no where that I have to tack back down since I can't clip them without risking the entire trim fraying). There was just no way I could do it in a reasonable time with the tools I have.  On the bright side, it actually looks almost exactly like the trim from the first fuchsia entari.

See? Very similar.

So, hopefully this all looks intentional and only you readers will know what really happened. :)

Anyhow, another reason this entari has taken so long is because of a planned family trip over the week of (American) Thanksgiving. In the preparation of going, it's only been minutes I can spare to pin, baste, and finish the entari. So again, the optimism of a few days turned to the sad realization of a week.

But it's done now, and hopefully after the trip there will be some on-person-with-applique pictures of it.

 

* Despite a whole week, there was actually no time to wash it. Looks like I will have to either do it by hand, or wait until December when we go to visit for Yalda.