Petticoats 101

I had debated about making petticoats, and decided last min to do it, and I'm glad I did! Our pics turned out so much better with them. BUT, that meant there was even more things that needed to be done before the big day.

Good thing I love to waste time blog surfing and came across this post from Gertie about petticoats! So, I headed to JoAnn's and purchased both the magazine and all the supplies for 3 petticoats. They were easy and came together fairly fast. I made and finished all 3 on Memorial Day (shout out to Ron for being Mr. Mom!!).

The hardest part was gathering the tiers, and then attaching them all while maintaining an even fullness. My thread kept breaking when I was gathering, so I tried using 100% polyester thread, but it didn't make any difference. So, I started googling. One person suggested fishing line - horray! Ron has an entire box of fishing line in the garage. So, I hand wound it around a bobbin. It worked for a bit, but started getting stuck under the feed dogs. So, I just moved it to the thread spool, and used it there.

For the most part, I am really happy with them. They are super cute under the dresses and the bias finish looks so good!

I decided to attach the girl's to an undershirt and sew a piece of lining under the petticoat to help prevent all of the itchies from the nylon net. This was an awesome idea! Not only did it make it easier for them to get dressed, but the undershirts also acted as a lining, so their dresses were not too transparent.
Now they are asking to just wear the slips!

Liah's dress

So, remember when I was going to get Liah's dress done before we went on vacation? Well, it didn't exactly happen. I cleaned the house instead...BIG mistake. Totally should have finished the dress and cleaned later!

After vacation, I came home and busied myself with finishing her dress, because I hadn't even begun my dress. And I knew mine would be quite the project. Maliah's came together pretty quick. I read up on how to make pin tucks in my favorite sewing book, and away we went! They were easier than I thought. But, every wave in their sewing line is obvious on the dress. To look perfect, each line of stitching needs to be perfectly parallel to the previous one. I'm sure no one else will even notice...Why is it that we are so much more critical of ourselves, than others?

Anyway, after the tucks and ribbon were attached, then it was basic stuff - attaching front to back, marking button placement, and gathering/attaching the skirt to the bodice. Then the sleeves. The last part was covering the neck/sleeve edges with self bias. Although the process wasn't necessarily difficult, it was time consuming, because it was done by hand. I suppose I may have been able to blind-hem stitch it, but I don't remember how...Maybe its time to read up on that!
I used flat felled seams (which are easy, these are like the seams on jeans) with Anna's dress, and it was too stiff. So, I used french seams on this one instead - which I love!!! I think they are my favorite seam finish, and I may begin to use them as my default whenever I sew. There are a lot of tutorials online, if you aren't sure how to do them. They are so easy, and look amazing.

Up next: Petticoats!

Midnight Oil

Oh, my goodness, friends! So much sewing has been happening at my house that I think I'm ready for a big break - and whole lot more sleep! And my children are asking when their Mom is coming back, as is my husband.

Good thing for them our pics are tomorrow!!!!!! All the sewing, pressing and starching are finally finished, so I'm headed off to actually go to bed before the wee hours of the morning. In the coming days, I'll be posting pics and doing a lot of talking about all the things I learned (by doing them the wrong way, of course).

Happy sewing friends!