Sew I Am: Jumper Fable

I have been taken with the idea of sewing jumpers/pinafore dresses, but apparently that's not something even remotely fashionable enough for pattern companies to offer many options now. I do have the original print of a current Simplicity pattern that was first issued in 2004 that happens to include a simple A-line jumper in two lengths, but that wasn't the jumper silhouette I wanted to sew. I also have a small stack of Burda dirndl patterns, but...waistline issues. (And the pattern used in the previous post did originally include a jumper, but those pieces are long gone from the envelope I thrifted.)

I do know that a lot of older dress patterns will include views that show a shirt being worn under the dress, but I didn't want to just use a dress, since the arm holes should be cut higher on a dress than on something that's meant to have another something worn under it. Than I had the thought: Hey! I know what's meant to have another something worn under it! A vest!

I do have several vest patterns (also things that aren't common on current pattern sites now), but I ended up back on the pattern that I had used for the vest I made late last year. I used view B this time

...well...I started with view B. I ended up with this

The obvious changes were fusing the front into a single piece and adding a back opening, but I didn't want the lining to simply be the outside, but cut from lining fabric. I felt like cutting facings, and applying interfacing to the edges of those, would work better. I cut the lower edges of the facings freehand, then cut the lower lining pieces by copying the shell pieces, aligning the facing with the top of the shell pieces, marking where they landed on the lining pieces, measuring up 1¼" (5/8" seam allowance x2), then shifting the facing pieces up to that measured point and using the lower edge of the facing to cut the top of the lining. I knew that was a very rough way to approach it and it ended up with errant areas, but, overall, it was close enough

And I did a lot of acrobatics on getting the lining to enclose the zipper without any hand stitching, and then again at the waist, although as I was editing these photos I remembered that I do need to go in and hand stitch a few inches of lining to the waistband. Sometime.

I've mentioned before that I get good results matching the waist seams on either side of the zipper by first sewing one side, then, with the zipper closed, mark on the other side of the zipper tape where the seam is, open the zipper, and then pin that at the waist seam before pinning the rest of the open zipper tape in place before sewing.

The top of the zipper isn't prefect, but it's not the worst I've sewn

Of course I edge stitched everything

The skirt is made of four complete selvedge-to-selvedge widths of fabric, and there was no way I was going to press that much fabric to make a blind hem, so I bolted the 3/16" edge roller onto the machine and zipped through the hem

And it really did zip along. I remember seeing and sewing fabric like this in the 1990s (this particular fabric was part of the relative's destash Nata brought a few years ago--thanks again!--so it very probably is from the 1990s), but I don't remember being aware of what fiber content it had. Here's the selvedge print on this fabric