Stash Wars

So this "need to make new clothes" mode added to a "need to stop acquiring more cloth and actually start using what I have" mode means I'm trying to be more random with what I sew, instead of only using cloth that I have exact ideas for.

To that end, I went back to Simplicity 9153

first used, cut in size large, for the bluebird dress.  This time I wanted to try it in medium, and also use a neckline from another pattern instead of freehand cutting a rounded neckline on this.  Looking through my patterns for a pull-over woven shirt pattern, I found McCall's 6543 (1993)

It's thrifted, and I discovered quickly that the original owner must have made view A or B, and the front and back pattern pieces are completely missing (that's my writing up there, crossing things out.)  But!  The front and back facing pieces were there, cut out in size 16, so I was able to use them to make a neckline and facings.

And the fabric choices, with the idea of "imperfectly made is better than perfectly imagined"?

And also with a dash of "oh, this bit is too short but there're left-overs from that bit, I can make it work...probably."

As with the bluebird dress, the center front and back skirt seams were omitted so the skirts are narrower, to fit on a single folded piece of cloth--but because they're shorter than given, they're maybe only 10" narrower (what, me, measure?)  The contrast band at the bottom is also cut curved, using the bottom of the upper skirt as a pattern, so it hangs properly and does that fun thing that plaids do when cut out round (not as extreme as a plaid circle skirt, but it still makes me happy.)

The curve was gentle enough--and the madras plaid was loose-weave enough--that no weird extra dimensions were introduced by sewing the pieces together.  I sewed the contrasts to the front and back pieces before sewing the side seams (which do have pockets, but I forgot to photograph them.  They look like side seam pockets.)  The seams were pressed up, and, after everything was assembled, dark blue thread was loaded into the top of the machine and edge stitched all around.

(You can kinda sorta see that the tone created where the yellow stripes intersect with the dark blue stripes is somewhat similar to the taupey midtone in the Star Wars print.)


The hem was turned up and stitched as narrowly as I felt comfortable with--which was not as narrow as the rolled hem foot I have would have made

I serged the lower edge and used that to get an even depth while sewing

 I know it's  kinda wasteful to serge an edge that will never be seen, but it's also a lot easier than trying to press something that narrow--especially on a curve!--and a lot more reliable than me trying to eyeball it. (yes, there is still a lot of red fuzz stuck to the machine from those leggings.)

I wanted the narrow hem not only to keep as much length as possible, but, honestly, also because I had turned up the sleeve hems 5/8" and then folded them in half and wasn't happy with how wide the ended up

I added the second line of stitching to try to fill up the width that bothered me here.  And I fully acknowledge that decades of doll sewing may have skewed my idea of what does or does not actually qualify as "wide." 

 It's not visible in this photo, but I did understitch the seam allowances around the facing, and that really does help the facing stay in place...but I went ahead and edge stitched the neckline anyway.  I think it's pretty well established that I Like Top Stitching.

 Here's the back--since I pattern matched the vertical stripes at the shoulders, and it's a really uneven plaid, I made sure to match the direction on the contrast with the plaid on the bodice

The fit on this is considerably more snug than the bluebird dress, but it should be fine in summer when I'm not wearing layers (I do admit, I was still wearing two layers of shirt when I tried this on today.)

And promptly proved that I have forgotten how to take an acceptable mirror picture with a DSLR.  Something else to remember!