Replacing the Upcycling

About five years ago, I made bodices to use with thrifted skirts--one with a fake Burda 6401 bodice, and one with Simplicity 9153's extended shoulder bodice.

I wore them a lot.

So much, in fact, that the delicate thrifted skirts started wearing out.  I tentatively mended some of the problem areas, but, honestly, it was getting to the point where the mends were stronger than the fabric, so I knew it was time to replace the entire skirt on both of them.

My last visit to the craft thrift store was made with hope of finding some fabric I could use to that end, and I was thrilled to find nearly 9 yards of a lightweight black woven cotton (if there's anything synthetic mixed in, a burn test said there's not much of it.)

I did take some time to make a complete dress before getting to the skirt replacements...mainly because the black of this new (to me) fabric is not the same black as the old bodices, and I wanted at least at least one loose summery black dress that was all the same black.

But then!  On to the new skirts!

I made the whole dress with four tiers, and decided the fake Burda 6401 should have three tiers, and be slightly shorter than the whole dress (which was the length of the original skirt on this dress.)

The color mismatch is slightly obscured by the difference in texture, from the flat bodice to the gathered skirt, which was also how it was with the original skirt.  The bodice is slightly blue, and the skirt is slightly yellow.

(and there's cat hair everywhere.  It's not even our cat.)

Like with the dress, I assembled the front tiers separately from the back, added the pocket bags, then sewed the side seams.

I sewed the hem with the larger hem roller.  It's the one that attaches to the sewing machine bed and feeds the rolled fabric to the regular presser foot, instead of the one that is a presser foot.  There was an area where it would not feed the fabric in right--I eventually figured out it was because one of the screws had worked loose and the roller was no longer feeding the fabric at the right angle.  I tightened the screws and everything was fine.

I do have black serger thread, but I also have a lot of other colors I never use, so figured it wouldn't be a problem to use any of them inside these black items.  I have no idea when the last time I used this navy thread was.

I did a plain skirt plus ruffle for the Simplicity 9153 bodice.  I guess you could call it two tiers, but that doesn't feel technically correct.

It has the same blacks mismatch, since the bodice is made from the same fabric as the fake Burda 6401's bodice.

It also has pockets and a rolled hem attachment hem and navy serging.

Not spectacular, but useful.  The few weeks I had these set aside to re-do were weeks when I sincerely missed having them as options to wear.  I'll probably wear one of them tomorrow...