I had included lots of valuable information (to me) in this post as I had again made mistakes and wanted to avoid them for the next time. Unfortunately, some of this precious info isn't in this second version because I forgot about it (it's been a really GOOD while since I started to work on this set.)
Anyway, this post is about making a two-piece set using the pattern Simplicity 1888. And it's a take two because I've already attempted this set before, only to finally give up after I accidentally made a hole in the fabric near the collar (while being already fed up with the fabric I had badly chosen).
Fabric and notions bought—I'm making View 1.
The fabric is from Magasin Comeau. I talked a little about my first visit here.
Close-up of the fabric
Making the bodice went very well, notably because I had already made it using the previous fabric. The difference here was that the fabric was much more pleasant to work with. The white pencil glid smoothly which made the process of making the darts and tucks so much easier.
Can you notice the dumb mistake I made?
Answer: The way I sewed both back pieces (the two pieces you see on each side) ended up with the front being inverted. This means that the seams of the front darts and tucks are showing when they shouldn't (while the seams of the tucks on the back pieces are okay).
I had just finished the hem of the sleeves when I found out about it. I couldn't believe I had actually tried the bodice a couple of times before and had never remarked this.
At that moment I had two choices to repair my mistake:
- Deconstruct an X number of bodice parts to resew the back pieces to the front the right way.
- Avoid deconstructing the bodice and unsew the front darts and tucks to remake them on the other side of the fabric.
I chose the first option even though deconstructing what I had just built was mental torture. I just feared that the second option would give a botched result.
I actually had to unsew every piece of the bodice. Nevertheless, I didn't regret my choice.
Everything was now where it had to be and as if I hadn't made any mistakes.
Now, for the rickrack below the collar... I thought I was smart by using white thread on top and navy thread on the bottom until I realized midway that the navy thread was visible.
Obviously, I restarted everything with white thread on top and bottom.
Bodice finally finished! I sewed the bottom sleeves and the sides at 3/4" instead of 5/8" to make it tighter. Here are the front and back:
My mom sewed the buttons and a snap at the collar.
Because I wasn't going to attach the skirt to the bodice (and make a dress), I thought that the skirt would be a walk in the park, but I hit a couple of walls making it.
First, the instructions told to sew the skirt sections together before putting on the skirt trim (this wasn't the hard part by the way lol.)
Cutting the skirt trim after joining the skirt sections
The instructions also said to join the skirt trims together before sewing it as a big "onion ring" on the skirt. I thought that was a bit weird, so I sewed the skirt trims individually. Because the skirt sections had already been joined, I had to unsew the seams where each section met to put the trim "inside", then join back the sections. See the picture below to understand better...
Very ugly, but fortunately barely noticeable when the skirt is worn
I don't think the strategy I went for was the best, but I learned from it. Also, I had tried to eyeball the position of the trims but had failed at some places (so had to unsew and resew). I had aligned the trims based on a horizontal line on the fabric, but I didn't see that the line was going downwards therefore wasn't reliable at all...
While I was unsewing, I noticed that the skirt pattern actually had dotted lines
to indicate where to put the skirt trim, so the mistake could have been avoided... ugh.
Onto stitching the two rickrack trims on the skirt. Because I had had difficulties in the past with the rickrack, I kind of dreaded this step. However, instead of pinning the rickrack on the fabric, I decided to try something new and make marks with the white pencil 1/2" from the skirt trim, as instructed. Then I joined the marks with a ruler and a pencil so that I'd have a straight line to place my rickrack on.
You can see at the bottom the white line I traced beforehand.
(I was taking a picture, but normally I had both of my hands holding the rickrack firmly.)
Sewing both rickracks with this method went like a charm and I was very satisfied with the result.
My euphoria didn't last long because making the gathers was a nightmare. It took me about seven attempts because the thread kept breaking off. I even used a thicker thread, but it still snapped. Then I realized that you had to pull on only one of the threads (not both the top and bottom threads) in order to gather...
Sewing the skirt band was also challenging because the gathers were all bunched up. Trying to sew a straight line on this thickness was near-impossible. The result was, as expected, atrocious:
And the overall aspect of the skirt wasn't as encouraging.
The skirt looked as bad when worn as in the picture above. I didn't wear a petticoat underneath, but even if I did I don't think that it would have improved the look.
I believe I would've given up on this pattern again if the bodice wouldn't have fit. However, I had found when trying on the set that would the skirt be pleated, it'd make a really nice ensemble. Thus I decided to deconstruct some parts of the skirt to replace the gathers with pleats.
I used the skirt pattern from Simplicity 4270 to make the pleats. Even though the pattern wasn't tailored to the skirt I was working with, I didn't want to fuss with calculating new pleat widths and just made the same ones. The result was so much cleaner and better:
Sewing the skirt band went also extremely well compared to when the skirt was gathered
I'm still wondering why the pattern asked for gathers. I guess that they work if you use lighter fabric, but now I know that I shall stay away from them when using stiffer fabric.
One thing left to fix was the waist that was too big for me. I talked about it with my mom and proposed to fold some fabric over the pleats to make the skirt tighter and secure everything with a snap. What I hadn't realized was that more than one snap would be required. After placing the first snap, my mom told me that we'd need a second snap, and when the first and second snaps were sewed, my mom explained that adding a third snap would be best to make the lump look flatter (a lump had taken form because of the two snaps.)
Skirt laid flat with the two snaps
Skirt laid flat with the snaps fastened together
View from the side
As you can see, it already looked thick from the side and the third snap wasn't even sewed yet. After thinking about it, I decided to remove the snaps and go for a longer route that guaranteed a better outcome—and that I should've taken originally. I unsewed one side of the zipper and the zipper seam from top to bottom, cut some fabric and pieced back everything together.
The extra fabric I cut off the skirt
I felt bad for not liking the skirt with the snaps because my mom had spent a great time placing and sewing them. And it's not like I wasn't aware of anything because she had shown me how thick it'd look like with two snaps, and I still agreed to proceed. The reason is that I didn't see any other solution except the one above—but that wasn't an option at the time because I was tired of deconstructing every garment and remaking it. Now I realize that in trying to go faster, I wound up with a not-so-good result and wasted time.
Following the alteration, the skirt band and especially upper rickrack
didn't align at the seam, but it's not noticeable when the skirt is worn...
Despite some imperfections, I'm happy with the skirt now. The waist fits perfectly and is absent of any bumps.
Skirt front
The pleats were pressed until the bottom because of personal preference.
Back
Close-up of the zipper at the back
My mom also sewed a hook on the skirt band.
It's hard to see, but the back of the skirt is pretty flat.
Skirt laid flat
And here's the top and the skirt together:
Sorry, I didn't press the bodice hence the folds!
I'm thinking of shortening the length of the skirt a little.
The bust sagging might be due to the design of the bodice,
but also because it's slippier fabric that doesn't stay tucked in the skirt.
Argh, you can see the zipper in the back though you shouldn't be able to.
If I ever use this pattern again, I'll try making a one-piece, because had this set be one, I would've loved it. I like the contrast stand-up collar, the skirt trim and the rickrack along with the fabric. It's only the bodice puffing that I dislike.
I feel like this post is slightly incomplete... still disappointed that it isn't as detailed as it should've been. Sometimes, I save my WIP post in another file just to make sure I have a backup in case a mishap happens (one time I accidentally deleted a blog post). Guess I'll always do this from now on.
