Pinafore dress completed

Well it's only taken until April to post my first completed sewing make of the year, but it's done! And I'm really pleased with the end result. (And I only sewed the plaster on my thumb to the dress a couple of times in the process!)

The completed dress

Having made up the bodice, the next step was to sew the skirt pieces together on one side, and sew bodice and skirt together. My pattern drafting must have gone a little awry, because the skirt was slightly wider than the bodice, but widening the side seams fixed this.

The 'belt' was made from a length of waistband petersham, covered with a strip of fabric. I machine sewed the two together on the wrong side, then wrapped the fabric round the petersham and slip-stitched it into place. Then this was attached to the top of the skirt with two rows of hand sewing from the inside of the skirt. The belt is a single strip, with the ends folded into the zip opening (just visible on the left of the picture).

The belt attached to the dress

The 'bow' consists of  a vintage buckle and a bow-shape made from fabric and lining. This was then attached to the belt.

Bow front and back

I had to baste the zip in place to fit the dress, and when I tried it on I found that it was too big over the hips. This is when you discover the disadvantage of a side opening - the zip had to come out and then be put back again. Once I was happy with the fit I hand-picked the zip; I've decided that for me this is just less hassle than machine sewing.

Finally I put in the skirt lining, and slip-stitched the bottom edge of the bodice lining over the top. Hemmed the skirt, added a hook and eye at the top of the zip, and all done.

There is a slight gape at the left armscye; I must have stretched it slightly when I was sewing it. I'll try running a gathering thread round it on the inside, and see if I can press it back into shape.

Showing the gape

Other than that, I'm happy. The end result has turned out pretty much as I envisaged it. My only concern now is that I don't have a period blouse to go with it - this modern M&S one is OK, but not quite right. I quite fancy something like this, with a bow.

1959 McCall's pattern

What I do have is some dotted swiss with pale blue spots, which I haven't used yet because I couldn't decide how to work around its sheer-ness. Obviously under a pinafore this wouldn't be an issue. Hmm . . .

Pinafore progress

Despite my misgivings I have decided to carry on with trying to make my self-drafted 1950s pinafore (jumper) dress. However I’ve been on another excellent course at Hat Works this weekend (making a Gatsby cloche - more details to come soon), so haven’t got a lot of progress to show this week.

Despite checking, double-checking and triple-checking, I wasn't convinced that I'd got the bodice and skirt darts to line up properly. So I decided that as it would be far easier to move the skirt darts than bodice ones, I'd make up the bodice and than match the skirt pieces to it.

Then I completely forgot to take any work-in-progress photos - sorry.

I've decided to have a side zip; it's period appropriate, and meant that I could cut the bodice back as a single piece. As usual for anything tricky, I cut all the pieces out from a single layer of fabric. It takes a bit longer, but it ensures that the the pattern is properly centred and that the skirt and bodice stripes match at the centre front and back.

Skirt front, with symmetrical stripes and darts

I wanted to line the bodice (I haven't decided yet whether to line the skirt), and used the same technique as for Butterick 6582. This involves making the front and back up separately, sewing the lining and main fabric together round the neckline and most of the armscye. Then turning the piece right side out, and sewing front and back together along the shoulder seams. Finally the remaining section of the armscye lining is slip-stitched closed.

The completed bodice

As the above photo shows, I didn't want to have facings as I thought they would be too bulky. Instead I cut out the lining from the same pattern pieces as the main fabric, and then trimmed off a scant ⅛" round the neckline and armscye. This made the lining fractionally smaller than the outer piece. I sewed the two together, matching the raw edges. When the bodice is turned right side out and the lining is pinned to the main fabric along the lower edge, this pulls the main fabric slightly in on itself, so the lining won't show from the outside.

Showing a tiny sliver of fabric round the neckline and armscye

I eventually calculated the 12 pleats for the bust, marked the fold lines with tailor tacks, then basted the pleats in place. I may have gone slightly overboard with this.

That's a lot of basting thread!

The next step is the skirt.

Knowing right from wrong

For all sorts of reasons, it's been a difficult and stressful few weeks here at Tulip Mansions, and I've really not been feeling at my best. So as I had a more or less free weekend, I thought I'd cheer myself up a bit by doing some dressmaking. Although I've not actually got as far as any sewing yet.

One of the first things we covered when I started my course was the no-no that is plagiarism - passing someone else's ideas off as your own. So with that in mind I'll state straight away that the idea for this project came from Tasha of By Gum, By Golly. She made a stunning sheath jumper dress (what I'd call a pinafore dress) in turquoise corduroy, which you can see here. I loved it so much that even though I'd never felt the slightest desire to make a pinafore dress for about 30 years, I immediately decided that I wanted one.

Looking online for patterns for inspiration, I found lots of examples with full skirts, but far fewer with straight skirts. Eventually I came across this, which is made in one piece, without a waist seam.

1959 jumper dress, with optional pockets

And this, which has full or straight skirt options.

1958, with raised waist

I really liked the raised waist with the 'belt' detail. Simplicity had reissued a similar pattern to this one, but it's now out of print.

Simplicity 3673

So the only option was to draft my own. Now this may not be most people's idea of how to have a relaxing weekend, but I do enjoy pattern drafting. Weird, I know!

Because I'm short-waisted, my version of New Look 6070 has the waistband section coming up to just below the bust, so I used that as a starting point for the bodice section.

The basis for a lot of alterations

I lowered the armscye and neckline, and changed the deep, diagonal pleats to more, smaller, vertical ones. There is something about calculating pleats which just turns my brain into mush, so this took some doing! I then made a toile of the bodice, and it fitted almost perfectly; I only needed to pinch out a little of the front neckline.

For the skirt I took my standard self-drafted skirt pattern, and raised the waist by the width of the New Look 6070 waistband. And that is as far as I got over the weekend.

I'd bought the fabric a couple of weeks ago, when I first decided that I wanted to make a pinafore. It's a wool-mix remnant, and is a perfect example of just how scrambled my brain has been recently.

Much as I love the check fabric examples on the pattern envelopes above, I know that checks don't love me. But, I didn't really want a plain fabric, so I was thrilled when I found this black and white weave with a blue stripe across it.

Blue stripes on a chevron weave

The stripes have a slightly odd, broken effect, and they go across the fabric. Horizontal stripes do me even fewer favours than checked fabrics, but as the fabric is 150cm / 54" wide, I figured that I could just cut the dress out sideways.

If by this time you are shaking your head at your screen and yelling, "Oh for the love of Pete, woman! What were you thinking?", I can only say that I honestly didn't realize. It was only when I washed the remnant and hung it up to dry that the truth finally dawned.

This is the wrong side of the fabric.

It actually looks like this.

Blue flecks on a chevron weave

Sigh.

This does not suggest that an ambitious, draft-your-own project is going to be a roaring success, but we'll see.