I will be a good child and once I get settle actually post all of the picture for the
that I made for a friends daughter.
Update.... As promised here is the photo step by step for:
Cost for materials. About $50, bought most of it on sale at Joanns or in the clearance section when it was 50% off. had somethings at home already.
Time it would have taken if I didn't have 3 kids pulling my attention else where, 12 hours
Reaction when girl got it... worth all the time in the world
- Dress:
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| All my fabrics and trims |
- Skirt and Bodice: Light Purple Satin
- Bodice insert and Upper Sleeve: Med Purple Satin
- Overskirt: P re-embroiderered organza
- Lower Sleeve: Leftover light purple organza from another project
- Lining and slip: Lining material from Joanns
- Interfacing: random interfacing that I had gotten from Downtown LA from another project
- Lacing: 1/8" wide spool of $.50 ribbon from Joanns
- Ribbon for Sleeves: scraps from the light purple fabric
- Lace for neckline and bodice: lace trim from Joanns
- Trim from skirt: Purple flower trim from Joanns
- Notions:
- Thread
- 14" invisible zipper
- Hook and eye
- ten eyelets that I had left over from another project
- 1/8" satin ribbon for lacing
- Tools:
- Topaz 30 Sewing Machine
- Brother 1034D serger
- seam ripper
- Hammer
- Eyelet tool
- Air soluble pen/chalk
- Temporary Spray Adhesive (505 Adhesive)
- Satin or fine straight pins
- Microtex Sewing Machine Needles
Dress Construction:
Overall the pattern is not that hard to follow. If I were to make this dress again I would tweak a few things, like when I add the sleeves since I decided to finish the sleeves rather than leave the edges raw. I also used ALOT less trim. I did a roll hem on my serger to finish the sleeves (both upper and lower) and the use of the pre-embroidered fabric saved me from having to finish the bottom of the skirt. I'll put all of my tips and trick in
pink as I go thru this.
So lets begin.
Pre-construction (i.e. pattern reading, cutting pattern, interfacing, etc.)
A) I like to reuse my patterns, often in a different size, so I traced all of the pattern pieces onto paper. I have been using HP Velum for a wide format printer. It works well because it is thicker than pattern tissue so it's easier to work with and doesn't tear as easily. On the downside, since it is thicker you need to have a solid WHITE background under the pattern to be able to see the lines to traces. So I just use a piece of the paper under the pattern than trace.
B) For some reason simplicity gave me the directions in French, after a quick e-mail to the company they e-mailed me the directions in English. Much easier to understand. If this happened to you and you need the English one. I have them here for you.
English Instruction for Simplicity Pattern 2065
C) I rarely follow the pattern to how the pattern pieces should be laid out. I find that it makes way to much waste. So here you can see how I laid out some of the Skirt and Top insert patterns pieces on the fabric
Tip:
I found that when working with satins and fabrics that pull easily the easiest thing to do is to use a temporary spray adhesive, like 505. Spray the Pattern Piece with 505 and stick them to the wrong side of your fabric. It's great because you don't have to worry about your pattern moving while your trying to cut it or the fabric moving when you are pinning it. Also it prevents pulls and snags in the fabric from any burs on the straight pins. Another plus is that the pattern piece stays with the fabric so that you don't have to worry about not knowing which piece it is.
E) Here are all of the pieces of the bodice cut out along with the interfacing cut. The Interfacing is cut out the same way as the pattern pieces. Interfacing helps keep the fabric from pulling. For satins it is used in places where a garment needs reinforcing because that area will be rubbing again the skin, or has a unique technique done it it. For this dress it's keeping the dress front down as well as keeping the satin from running where the eyelets go.
F) Apply the interfacing to the collar with using the manufactures direction. The part of the interfacing that should touch the fabric is the side that has little bumps on it. That is the glue that melts from the heat of the iron. If your interfacing doesn't have any directions, you can typically apply it by pressing a damp cloth over the interface side with a iron set to the cotton setting. Then remove the iron and iron the fabric (dry) to remove any excess moisture.
Tip:
I typically apply all of my interfacing before I start construction so that I don't have to stop part of the way thru and set up the iron again.
G) Apply interfacing to inside of the bodice by lining the points and flat sides with each other
Dress Construction
Bodice
Note: Numbers correlated to Simplicity Directions
Letter are extra steps I've added
1. Stay stitch the front inseams. You can see the stay stitches in the picture. I just use the default stitch length that my machine sets up for light weight woven fabric (around 2.5 mm I want to say)
For those not familiar with stay stitching, it's important to go from the direct as illustrated in the picture because as you sew the fabric wills stretch. If the garment is to stretch it's better to have the extra material in the direction that the illustration shows.
2. Apply interfacing: Already completed above
3. With right sides together sew along edge and press seams so that front of dress lies flat. Repeat on both sides until you get something like the image below when opened up
Step 4:
4a) Once step 3 is complete you need to fold the purple side so that the curve on the bottom is unbroken. I did this by folding the side parts along the interface line then putting a pin at the top and bottom of the seam lines.
4b) When both sides are folded along the interface line flip the bodice over. Fold the side along the seam line and pin in place. Note, they will not meet in the middle.
4c) Use a long basting stitch and sew the flaps do the bodice at the top and bottoms
Adding the Eyelets (still step 4):
Tools needed:
- Hammer
- Seam Ripper
- Air Soluble Pen/Chalk
- Eyelet tool
- Hard surface (and something to protect it)
4d) I took my pattern and put it on my ironing board w/o the cover on. I used a ball point pen to poke holes in the center of all of the circles on the pattern to indicate where the eyelets need to go.
4e) Transfer all of the marking by putting either a chalk mark or an air soluble pen by lining up the pattern onto the front of the bodice and draw the mark onto the garment.
4f) Use a seam ripper to carefully make a small tear thru all of the layers that is just big enough to put the eyelet in. I recommend making the slit vertical (neckline to waist) to prevent the fabric from running. If you want you could apply fray check to the fabric before you put the eyelet thru the bodice.
4g) Put eyelet thru the hole that you just made. Make sure that you put the side that has the high side thru the fabric, not the ring.
4h) Put eyelet tool onto a hard surface. I used my kitchen table, with a magazine under neath it so that I wouldn't dent my table.
4i) Put the ring onto the eyelet and place the long part of the eyelet tool onto the eyelet.
4j) Hit the long part of the eyelet tool with a hammer until the tube part of the eyelet has folded over onto the ring.
4k) Repeat for each of the 10 marks. When you are done you will get something that looks like this. Even mine puckered when I put the eyelets in. That is a result of not having a large enough hole that the eyelet went into. I preferred the pucker than to having HUGE runs in the fabric or a hole that is too big. Plus when it's worn you can barely see it anyway.
5) Simplicity says to: line the top of the front of the bodice with the back of the bodice at the shoulders and sides
and stitch in place.
Suggestion:
This is where if I were to do this again I would deviate.
Instead of sewing the top of to the back at the shoulders and sides, I would just sew them at the top. Then I would jump to Simplicty Step 26 in attach the arms. Why do you say.... I have found that it's easier to not sew the sleeves together and just sew the sleeve tops to the arm holes. Then right sides together line up all of the outside seams and stitch closed. The benefit is that you don't need to have a free arm sewing machine, and all of your under arm seams will line up correctly. I constructed the dress as the Directions said and boy was it ever a pain in the neck. For this blog I will follow the Simplicity directions.
6) I pined the lace onto the bodice 5/8" from the bottom. At the chevron at the bottom of the bodice I kept the "solid" part of the lace along the line and folded the lace up so that it made a point. Once the lace was sewn in place and put down the fold went away and made a nice point at the bottom. As you can see from the picture on the left I centered my needle just to the left of the solid part of the lace.
and now for the...
Skirt
This does make a very full "Princess Skirt". If you wanted it closer to the movie you could just use one of the back panels and cut a slit in the middle for the zipper. When I did this dress I was going for that "Disney Princess" Full ball gown feel, not movie accuracy, so I used both back pieces. Note I made the skirt out of order that Simplicity states. You can do it either way but this is what I did. Remember the numbers as Simplicity Step numbers, not the order to sew this in.
12) Sew stay a stay stitch at the chevron of the front section of the dress.
13) As stated in the directions, I pieced all of the skirt pieces right side together, giving you a big circle of fabric. Sew with a 5/8" seam allowance
14a) I used a serger to finish the bottom of the outer skirt so that it would not fray. knowing that this mad a very long skirt I knew that I would not need to do a narrow hem as the directions state.
14b) I measured 2 inches from the bottom of the skirt and pinned in place.
14c) I did a blind hem on the skirt so that I wouldn't have to tack it up by hand and also so that there wouldn't be a thread line 2 inches up from the bottom of the skirt. So to do a blind hem on the machine you pin the skirt as in 8b, then you go back and fold the skirt under (right side down) and re-pin it with just the serged edge showing. I'll have to do another post just on machine blind hems. Once you figure it out (it's not hard) you'll wonder how you ever did with out it
14d) On my Viking the blind hem foot is foot "D" as seen in the picture on the left. The fold goes up against the slit. You use an altered zig-zag stitch (picture on right) that will sew mostly on the fabric that is on the right of the stitch and make a little stitch that will catch the fabric on the left.
When you are done, fold the folded edge back down and press. On the outside it will look like the picture below.
Over Skirt
Since I used a pre embriodered fabric I tweaked the pattern a bit for the over skirt.
7) If you are using non-embroidered fabric you would sew all of the over skirt panels together at this point. Make sure that you don't sew the front closed as this has a open front.
8) You would also do a narrow hem on the bottom, Since I am using a pre-embroidered fabric, it was not necessary. Just remember to make sure that the over skirt is the same length as the skirt. It will be pain to have to hem it later, since you will have trim on it. Also if you are using a wide trim on the bottom, don't drive yourself nuts by trying to make a nice neat narrow hem, it will be hidden by your trim.
8 alternate) Using a pre finished edge fabric, like the one I did
Cutting:
I lined up my patterns and cut my over skirt from one continuous piece to avoid seams and having to piece the bottom together.
To do that I just lined up my back piece (1/2 of skirt back) and side piece, folded my fabric in half parallel to the cut line.
Since the bottom of my over skirt is embroidered I moved the fabric up 2 inches from the bottom (same as the hem on my underskirt) and cut the fabric out. No sewing of skirt pieces needed
9) As you can see from the picture I finished the overskirt by running it thru my serger so that it wouldn't fray. Since the trim covers the edge it doesn't matter how much "thread" is showing since it will be covered up.
I picked out a nice 3-dimensional flower trim and I didn't want to sew a straight stitch over it and flaten it down. So I used the same blind stitch again to sew the trim on. I folded the trim in half and sewed straight down. The trim is on the right in this picture because the long stitch was on the right had side this time. Make sure that you check so that you don't sew too much down.
Here is a picture of the finished edge. As you can see the flowers are nice and puffy. :)
Attaching the Bodice to the Skirt
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| Bodice, skirt, and over skirt |
11 and 15) I didn't pin the over skirt and baste it to the skirt so I did everything all at once.
15a) I lined side seam up and pinned them in place. Then I pinned the front part to where they should be when they are open.
15b) I then gathered the over skirt and pinned in place
15c) Then I used a small zig zag stitch to stitch in place. I used a zig zag to make sure that I caught all of the puckers and such.
15d) I repeated the same process for the skirt. Remember the skirt goes on the outside when doing it this way.
Need to find my other digital camera for the rest of the pictures to finish with attaching the sleeves and such...
Just a general note on attaching the sleeves. If I were to make this pattern again I would not attach the sleeve after the dress is finished, as stated in the directions. Just way way too much material to be trying to stuff under the free arm.
I would attach the arms before I sewed the skirt onto the bodice. Less fabric to deal with.
