After all that dedication to (eventually) changing the serger thread to black, you'd think I had more things planned to sew with it. (Granted, what I do know I want to sew with it, I have not, at this time, wanted to sew.)
I poked around the fabric stash and eventually decided I would use a very 1990s print mostly-purple rayon, and eventually settled on using it for a slip (cut first, not yet sewn) and another peasant dress based on Simplicity 9866. I did not check the posts I'd made about making the previous two versions, and I had forgotten that I had been experimenting with sleeve length--I mean, yeah, I saw that there was a shorter traced paper version of the sleeve, but I didn't remember the circumstances, so I used the original dress's sleeve pattern. At this point, it's so far from the Otome no Sewing project that it's no real concern.
I am amused that this uses a 1990s print to make a 1940s silhouette using a 1970s pattern modified to mimic a 2010s magazine project.
I will concede that the Ninetiesness of the print (part of the generous inherited destash a friend gave me a few years ago--thanks again!) does take a lot of style cues from the Forties, if you know what you're looking at. And the Forties did love rayon.
I made the bias tape for the elastic channels from self fabric, so no contrasts inside the neckline this time. I used half inch knitted elastic, because my bias application skills are still not great, and the slinky rayon conspired to make some of the channels around the neckline end up closer to a half inch, in places, than to three-quarter inch. Since knitted elastic is so soft, I doubled it up inside the neckline for extra strength.
The sleeves and waist got a single piece of elastic each. I didn't measure anything--I just sorta wrapped it around the appropriate parts of my body and cut where seemed right, duplicating as needed.
As always, I pressed the sleeve hems before attaching the sleeves to the body, unfolding the pressed edges to sew the under arm seam, then stitching the sleeve hem. I am happiest when I can press as much as possible before attaching anything to anything else.
I remembered that I had used the original pattern bodice pieces to mark the waist, where the bias tape would eventually be sewn. But. This rayon liked to slither away whenever I tried to mark it with tailor's chalk, so I braced myself and thread traced the lower edges. Badly, but I did it.
I sewed one side seam, then applied the bias tape, stopping short of where the other side seam would be. Then I sewed the other side seam, followed by inserting the elastic.
Yes, there are pockets.
After sewing the side seams and inserting the elastic, I let the dress-so-far hang overnight. The next day, I cut the lower edge at 70cm from the waist elastic, then sewed three fabric widths together, used the wider hem roller to (badly) finish one long edge, then used the ruffler, set at a very small gathering size. It ended up longer than the lower edge of the dress was wide, which was great.
I started sewing it on about an inch from the side seam, then sewed around to about an inch from the other side of the same seam. I cut off the excess, stitched and serged the ruffle into a loop, then sewed those last few inches. I also tacked the seam allowance down, instead of picking out the rolled hem stitching and rolling the bottom of that seam into a re-sewn hem. As always: no-one should ever be looking at that while I'm wearing it, so it's fine.
No picture of the back, because, even though I did use a separate back pattern, so the top of the back is higher than the front, it doesn't really look that different.
But. It does look done, and that's what matters.
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