better late than never?
Jun. 10th, 2011 12:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elizabeth_mnYeah, I finished it a week ago, but now here's the “Girl’s dress, so I don’t forget everything I did” post!
I made her undies in a pretty costume-y way, using elastic and all that, but hey, they worked. She’ll get better stuff when she is older.
Getting ready to go to the picnic:
For the dress, I started with the Truly Victorian Girl’s Dress pattern, but it didn’t go small enough for my daughter’s age, and F is pretty small anyway, so I first scaled down the pieces to her measurements. It felt wrong to make a 9” armscye (so small!) but I knew that was right based on the measures, so I went for it.
Of course, at this point I hadn’t yet decided on a style. The pattern was for 1869 and my target year was 1882, so I went sifting through a book of pattern catalog reprints. All the cutest dresses were actually aprons, so instead of making a crummy dress just to have something to go under the apron – in reality, actually another dress – I just made the ‘sack apron’ (center left) and called it a dress.
So, I merged the front, side, and skirt side pattern pieces into one plain front piece and rounded the neckline. The bodice back ended at the ‘natural’ waist and the back skirt was gathered in. The ties are sewn into the side seams. The hem ruffle is about 5” and cut on the bias. Its seam is covered by a narrow bias strip. I also faced the neckline with a bias reverse facing just to add a little more interest.
The fabric is cotton-blend twill from SR Harris. It said 100% cotton, but once I started sewing it, big tufts of obviously synthetic fiber started fraying out from the edges. I think it may have some slight stretch as well.
It closes in back with buttons. I wish they were mother of pearl, but what can I say? They are plastic. I did try to find MOP ones, but they were all grey, no white. Next time I need to plan ahead; for some reason I never even think about buttons until 3 days before a deadline.
It went together pretty easily, except for the sleeves. It was almost impossible to set such a tiny sleeve! I could barely get it under the machine's foot. Next time I might just do it by hand. Although I did manage to match the stripes almost perfectly on the sleeve seams, as you can see in the back shot, above. That was probably a total accident.
It kind of ended up being Pink Overload because I couldn’t find her white tights, and her white socks were in the wash, and the natural linen hat I was making didn’t work out, so she had all-pink accessories. I mean, I love pink, but some neutrals would have calmed it down a bit, or some contrast would have made it pop a bit more. Plus the modern bucket hat did kind of ruin the effect, but at least she was protected from the sun. She wore plain black Mary Janes for shoes.
Anyway, I liked it, and she seemed quite comfortable and enjoyed wearing it. I also have that nice feeling that there is lots of room for improvement on her next dress!
I made her undies in a pretty costume-y way, using elastic and all that, but hey, they worked. She’ll get better stuff when she is older.
Getting ready to go to the picnic:
For the dress, I started with the Truly Victorian Girl’s Dress pattern, but it didn’t go small enough for my daughter’s age, and F is pretty small anyway, so I first scaled down the pieces to her measurements. It felt wrong to make a 9” armscye (so small!) but I knew that was right based on the measures, so I went for it.
Of course, at this point I hadn’t yet decided on a style. The pattern was for 1869 and my target year was 1882, so I went sifting through a book of pattern catalog reprints. All the cutest dresses were actually aprons, so instead of making a crummy dress just to have something to go under the apron – in reality, actually another dress – I just made the ‘sack apron’ (center left) and called it a dress.
So, I merged the front, side, and skirt side pattern pieces into one plain front piece and rounded the neckline. The bodice back ended at the ‘natural’ waist and the back skirt was gathered in. The ties are sewn into the side seams. The hem ruffle is about 5” and cut on the bias. Its seam is covered by a narrow bias strip. I also faced the neckline with a bias reverse facing just to add a little more interest.
The fabric is cotton-blend twill from SR Harris. It said 100% cotton, but once I started sewing it, big tufts of obviously synthetic fiber started fraying out from the edges. I think it may have some slight stretch as well.
It closes in back with buttons. I wish they were mother of pearl, but what can I say? They are plastic. I did try to find MOP ones, but they were all grey, no white. Next time I need to plan ahead; for some reason I never even think about buttons until 3 days before a deadline.
It went together pretty easily, except for the sleeves. It was almost impossible to set such a tiny sleeve! I could barely get it under the machine's foot. Next time I might just do it by hand. Although I did manage to match the stripes almost perfectly on the sleeve seams, as you can see in the back shot, above. That was probably a total accident.
It kind of ended up being Pink Overload because I couldn’t find her white tights, and her white socks were in the wash, and the natural linen hat I was making didn’t work out, so she had all-pink accessories. I mean, I love pink, but some neutrals would have calmed it down a bit, or some contrast would have made it pop a bit more. Plus the modern bucket hat did kind of ruin the effect, but at least she was protected from the sun. She wore plain black Mary Janes for shoes.
Anyway, I liked it, and she seemed quite comfortable and enjoyed wearing it. I also have that nice feeling that there is lots of room for improvement on her next dress!
no subject
Date: 2011-06-10 08:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-11 10:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-11 04:54 pm (UTC)I make a lot of kids' and dolls' clothes -- the armscye is a lot easier if you sew the sleeve on to the armhole before sewing either the bodice side seam or the sleeve seam. Set the sleeve onto the armscye first and then sew the entire side seam: hem to pit to wrist. It's too tiny to do the regular way.
Really great work; I wish I had a girl to dress!
no subject
Date: 2011-06-11 06:09 pm (UTC)I definitely would have used that method, sewing the sleeve seam in one with the side bodice seam, but it doesn't work with a two-piece sleeve since the sleeve seam does not line up with the bodice seam.