Making a 1950s Two-Piece Set – Simplicity 1888

Okay... I'm writing this blog post for the second time since I accidentally deleted its content while working on it and though I hadn't saved the changes when I went back to my Posts page, Blogger acted as if I had (probably that darn automatic save).
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!

Sadly, I don't think I'll wear this set often, notably because I don't like that the bodice keeps popping out of the skirt and gives an unattractive "puffy"/"saggy" effect from the side. I kind of apprehended it when I learned that the pattern was actually a two-piece, but I didn't feel like going off-track by attempting to make a dress.

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.

Stuff From Japan, Simons & Sticker Reorganization

I got some nice stuff from various places this past month and this month. ◝(⁰▿⁰ ♡)◜

Let's start with the purse I got from Japan (Mercari) bought with DEJAPAN.

Chairoikoguma Plush Shoulder Purse Bag
ぬいぐるみマルチポシェット（チャイロイコグマ）

I saw this purse for the first time on Instagram via rilakkumaus. I fell in love with it right away. I was familiar with Rilakkuma and Korilakkuma, but I had never seen this little guy before. I liked its darker brown fur which reminded me of a bear cub, along with the absence of yellow in the ears (like Rilakkuma) which sometimes looks a little tacky to me.

Cute bow on the zip

There's a leather-like loop behind each ear with a lobster clasp.

The purse is really well-made.

The inside is so cute. I don't really like polka dots, but these shades are charming.

The only unfortunate thing about this purse is that I can't fit my wallet in... I can fit my phone, a mini hand sanitizer and a very small coin purse. This is quite a change for someone who's used to stuff a ton of things in her Liz Lisa x MM x MLTS bag. However, the Chairoikoguma purse won't be replacing my primary bag, so it's not the end of the world.

Twik Royal Check Legging [link]

My mom saw these high-waisted pants at Simons and they were 9,99 $ CAD...! The pants were actually long pants and I immediately thought they would make perfect capris (and that I could wear with these cardigans). I generally prefer low rise pants, but it's so hard to find a pair that fits me and the price was a steal, so I didn't think twice before buying it.

My mom successfully altered the pants into capris by cutting off some length at the bottom. ✨

The waist is an elastic band, very comfortable.

It could be a little tighter... but it still holds fine on my waist.

Twik geo zip miniskirt [link]

This piece is also from Simons. I believe it was released a while ago, like winter 2019 or 2020... because I've noticed it a few times before, along with a couple of other similar skirts (check and plaid patterns were trendy last fall.) I never tried one of them because I wasn't willing to pay the regular price, but this weekend, most skirts were priced down and this one was 10 $ off. I tried three different models and I preferred this one the most for the fit, the design and the colours.

I like the 70s look of the skirt and how it reminds me of a sunny day in autumn. I don't have a lot of tops to pair this skirt with (in terms of colour), but I still wanted to get it. \(･ω･\)

I also love the zip at the front. I've seen the skirt in a dark blue-green check pattern, and it wasn't as pretty. The metal zip was just too visible and contrasting with the skirt's dark colour.

The skirt fits very well at the waist. It's an A-line model, so it gives the body a flattering shape. At the hips, the left one could always be more prominent (my left hip is smaller than my right one, but the fact that the skirt doesn't tightly rest on my hips reduces the hip asymmetry.

Slit at the back

Sticker Reorganization

To put this into context... I ordered a planner (and other accessories to decorate it) a week ago on AliExpress, and while waiting for my order to arrive, I decided to reorganize my sticker "collection". I amassed a lot because I haven't had enough occasions to use them.

I've had some stickers for over 15 years, and although they're not so much my style anymore, I didn't want to throw away any stickers. Most of them were gifted to me by my family or friends, so I still hold on to them.

I would store my stickers in the pencil box on the right.

It was always a hassle looking for a specific set in this thing.

I took pictures of some nice stickers I wanted to share here...

These are among my favourites of Hello Kitty.

I almost finished one sheet and there are only two...

These HK stickers aren't that pretty, but their colours match well

with the theme I'll be going for in my planner.

Sadly, these HK stickers turned yellow with time...

About the stickers above... My mom bought these to me recently at Walmart. I had never seen this character before, it's called Bananya. (╥ ̫ ╥) Needless to say how cute he is. Who could've made cats in bananas look so lovable? I love 长草颜文字 (Budding pop), but I've seen quite some characters alike recently, and it's refreshing to see something completely new. Definitely one of my favourite characters now. I googled other pictures of it and the colours are so pretty and soft!

These were given to me when I ordered something from South Korea...

I can't remember if it's when I got my keyboard stickers or something else.

Look at how many sheets are in this set! I love the variety in the cat's displays.

I must use the ones on the left for Christmas this year.

Random lot of cute stickers

The Nemo stickers were sold in packs at Dollarama and were actually hard to get (each pack contained non-shiny stickers depicting scenes of the movie Nemo and had zero to two of the shiny ones.) I went through like 4-5 packs (all bought by my mom) until I finally got the shiny Nemo sticker.

I put the starfish in the picture, but I just remembered now that I never really liked it.

Another lot of cute stickers (all acquired here—didn't even remember I had

Rilakkuma stickers and rather surprised I actually found a set in my city)

For unknown reasons, I've got a thing for stickers that display expressions, such as emojis stickers.

Unique stickers from my language partner. That was back in university.

She knew I loved Hello Kitty.

I didn't even know I had these kinds of notes stickers... (except the ones on the bottom left)

Good thing I'll soon have a planner to use them. ✨

I felt a bit nostalgic when I saw the stickers in the pic above... the brand stickers (Billabong, DC, Roxy, etc.) were all bought at Clément. It's a clothing store where they sell really nice clothes for children. It was my favourite store when I was 11-12 years old (Billabong was my favourite clothing brand), though we never shopped there on a regular basis since it was too expensive. However, my mom would sometimes buy me one of their stickers when we'd visit the store. These are the only stickers that I collected on purpose.

As for the three stickers at the bottom... I vaguely remember getting them at an Allstar sticker machine in a mall while on a trip with my mother and my sister. I had tried three times to get a specific sticker but had failed each time. 🤡

Enough pics of stickers... here's how I reorganized them.

I got the box and the file folders at the dollar store. Because the file folders were too big, I cut them to fit into the box and covered their edges with cute Hello Kitty tape that had been sitting untouched in my room forever. So good to finally put to use some of my cutest stuff. ✨

I classified my stickers in 8 categories:

• Hello Kitty (used two files because I have a lot of HK stickers)
• Food
• Animals
• Expressions (like emoji stickers)
• Other Characters (Spongebob, Tweety Bird, Monsters Inc., etc.)
• Seasonal/Holidays
• Others
• Notes stickers

Phew! I'm so glad to have reorganized my stickers. It's more pleasant to leaf through them. My intention is to use them in my future planner profusely so that I can buy even cuter ones on AliExpress. (>◡<)

Cute Cardigans, Memo Notes & Sewing Stuff

Here's various stuff I got during the month of June. I wish I had more to say in this post introduction, but I don't. I feel like the end of June closes a series of stressful months at work (even though I've worked from home since March), so despite doing cool activities like shop and sew, work stuff was always in the back of my mind. I believe the following months will be less tense, notably because it's summer, but I can never be certain.

Anyway, let's start with two cardigans I found at Values Village.

Pastel Pink Cardigan With Embroidery Flowers

Such a lovely colour and the condition is near perfect. 🌷 I found the embroidery flowers tacky when I first saw them, but my initial impression quickly changed. The fit is on the tighter side (I can't really button it), but the secondhand cardigans I find are usually always too big for me, so I'm glad it's the other way round this time. I can see this cardigan matched perfectly with a pair of slim capri pants and ballet flats, just like Audrey Hepburn:

source

Love the buttons at the cuffs

Beaded pistils

The only flaw is that there's a name tag (where the brand tag is) that has been firmly pressed onto the fabric with an iron. I tried to remove it, but it's so well stuck that I risk damaging the fabric if I insist on pulling it off.

White x Black Polka-Dot Cardigan

This cardigan is so cute. I thought it came from Japan, but the brand says Franco Valeri (the possibilities that it was from Japan were quite nonexistent anyway.) I'd also totally wear this cardigan with capri pants, but since it's shorter, it would also fit well with a midi skirt.

I should really get better at inspecting clothes while thrifting.

Both sleeves have stains which I only found out when I arrived home. Even with good amounts of Spray 'n Wash and after several washes, the stains are still faintly visible. I hate stains, especially when it's secondhand and I'm not the first owner. I'll probably wear the cardigan nevertheless since it's adorable. However, the stains did dissuade me from replacing the buttons as I didn't feel like spending more money on a cardigan that is damaged.

Cute Memo Notes

I found these notes at Michael's. There were other products displaying this character, but these notes were the cutest. It's so rare to find such things here!

The characters are from OnceMoreWithLove. I feel like the creator got a lot of her inspiration from Hello Kitty (cue the red bow on the above character), 问题儿童欢乐多 (Problem Children Are Very Happy?) and 长草颜文字 (Budding Pop). The shop is based in Canada, so I'm glad that for once, I can access cute stuff within the country. For instance, I tried looking up Budding Pop stationery multiple times on Taobao or AliExpress but had no luck.

Bio of the creator

Sewing fail with Simplicity 1888

A couple of weeks ago, I began a sewing project with a pattern I had been impatiently waiting for in the mail.

Notions bought.

The pattern is in size 11 (bust 31.5", waist 24.5").

I decided to make the set in blue on the pattern cover. I'm a bit ashamed to say this, but I really thought this was a dress... I only realized it was a two-piece set when I received the pattern lmao. I imagine I could have turned this set into a dress without pulling my hair out, but I didn't want to make things too complicated for the first time using this pattern and thought it would be interesting to pair the skirt with a different top.

I didn't plan on wearing this set a lot during the summer, thus I wanted something that would look great for fall. This dark raspberry looked really nice and I wanted to try a solid colour for once.

Close-up of the fabric used for the stand-up collar and the contrast skirt trim.

It's ivory cotton with a flower print.

I chose this oriental-looking ribbon instead of rickrack.

I found the colour matched perfectly with the fabric.

After my mom washed the fabric, I noticed lint and very slight pilling on it. This had never happened before with fabrics after washing them. I kind of ignored it, thinking that it wouldn't make much difference when sewing, notably because it was labelled as being 100 % cotton. Upon starting to sew, I realized I was wrong. The fabric felt fragile and thinner, therefore it was harder to control and stay in place when sewing.

Making the darts and tucks was so painfully long. The white pencil wouldn't show on the fabric so I had to fold each of the dart/tuck's lines, place the ruler and draw a straight line with the chalk (instead of just marking dots and tracing straight lines with the ruler and a pencil). It doesn't seem that arduous, but the fabric's wool-like texture made everything more complicated. The roll-on chalk didn't glide smoothly and my lines were not as precise as with a pencil.

Some steps later...

In the above picture I was supposed to finish the bottom edge of the (inside) collar with ribbon seam binding, but stitching it onto the fabric went so bad that I just gave up. Shortly after I accidentally made a small hole with my scissors on the front bodice and that was the last straw. I dropped this project with this fabric.

A couple of weeks later, my mom and I went to Magasin Comeau for the first time. I had searched for fabric stores "nearby" and this one seemed to have pretty cotton patterns. Never did I expect to find so many lovely prints! The store carries lots of plaid patterns which are my favourites. The price per meter is also less expensive than most fabrics at Fabricville or Club Tissus, but it takes a while to get there by car, so it costs more in gas.

I always feel awkward when telling the person at the cutting table how much fabric I need for a garment. This is because I have a vintage pattern, therefore, all of the measurements are in yards and in inches (inches aren't so bad, but we use meters here instead of yards.) This usually brings me to show my vintage pattern to justify the uncommon units of measure. I've been wanting to convert all of the measurements ahead of going to the fabric store, but always forget to when the time comes and this time was no different; I arrived unprepared at Magasin Comeau. Again, I explained the reason for my pattern's units of measure. While discussing vintage patterns, the lady mentioned that she and her mother were actually looking to donate a box of older patterns to someone. Yes, donate. My mom and I said that we were very interested, and two days later, we went to pick up the patterns.

All of the patterns given 💖

Most patterns are from the 1970s and 1980s, but there are also some from the 1950s and 1960s. Among them are really pretty designs, even in the more recent patterns.

The only downside is that none of the patterns are in my size (they're all for a 32" bust or more), but it isn't that big of a deal. You can resize patterns and the younger patterns include multiple sizes, e.g. from 8 to 14 (and because the first owner used a bigger size, I guess that I could just recut each pattern piece on the smaller size line). Besides, the lady was generous enough to give her patterns to me, so I have absolutely nothing to complain about. I'll surely make dresses with some of these patterns.

By the way, I left Magasin Comeau with two different fabrics! One is actually to try making again the set from Simplicity's pattern 1888. I'm currently working on it and the new fabric works so much better than the dark raspberry one. This saddens me a little because I bought notions that I won't be using for this project, though I'll try to use them in another one.

Simplicity 1958 Sewing Book

I got this book on eBay for only 11 $ CAD. It was the lowest price among the other ones up for sale. The condition is very good, only the spine's top and bottom are a little turned up, but the pages are pretty much intact and still firmly bound to the spine.

The magazine covers so many subjects. Here are snippets just to show you the range of topics discussed:

Tips on Simplicity patterns. Being my favourite patterns as of now,

I'm glad to have access to this kind of custom info.

Reading this before making my first vintage dress would have helped me tremendously...

Here's how to make a blouse, but there's also how to make a skirt, a dress,

a child's dress, a jacket and a man's sports shirt. All include pictures and drawings.

As you can see, it gives lots of sewing tips, tricks and recommendations. I'm aware the internet is already flourishing of sewing resources, but I'm interested in vintage dresses and this magazine is all about (Simplicity) vintage patterns. I know I won't be applying everything written in this magazine, but I'll certainly discover new ways of doing things.

Ending again my post with food, this time take-out poutine... my favourite fast-food along with pizza.