When & Now Sewing

At a point in time I no longer remember, I downloaded the free Tonika Bralette and Panty pattern from Madalynne Intimates. I liked the cropped tank/low-support sports bra look of the bralette and also it was free.

Supplies

I had (and still sort of have) some good size scraps of the floral rib knit fabric I've made so much from already, so I cut the pieces out from that.

Since the rib knit isn't very sturdy and I don't trust it's recovery, I opted to line the whole thing in a sturdy white powernet from Porcelynne.

I used a white fold-over elastic for the neckline and armholes, and a wide picot band elastic for, well, the band. Both were from Bias Bespoke in "cream."

Sewing

This was, as expected, as super easy project. The side seams are sewn, the shoulder seams are sewn, and the elastics are attached. Easy-peasy!

I originally intended to sew all the seams so that the raw edges were encased - and I did do that for the shoulders - but then I decided to sew on the armhole elastics while the sides were still open so I didn't have to sew them in the round. Once the neckline elastics and armhole elastics were finished, I sewed up the side seams.

I regretted that a bit later, but it would be the least of my problems.

The last order of business was the band elastic. I deviated slightly from the instructions here. They recommend, if I understand correctly, sewing the elastic to the lower edge of the bralette with the right sides of both facing up, because you don't do anything else to finish that edge.

I applied the band in a more traditional way, placing them right sides together, with the decorative edge of the band facing up. I zig-zagged close to the edge of the fabric (to leave most of the band exposed), then folded the band down and did a second round of zig-zag stitches to hold the seam allowances upward.

Doing the band that way meant that I lost a tiny bit of height in the bust, but I'm small chested and it was really a very small amount anyway.

Final Thoughts

Well. You can't win them all.

The final result, while cute and a good concept, is basically unwearable.

For starters, using a heavier-weight powernet was a terrible idea. It basically doesn't stretch. A lighter powernet or some kind of athleisure fabric with more stretch would have been a much better idea.

For seconds, the band was a disaster. My band elastic was too "soft" and too stretchy to pull in under the bust the way it should have. I also maybe made the band too long.

The whole thing ended up being too compressive in the front, too loose in the back, and having a band that didn't function as a band.

Separately, I do have to admit some reservations about the pattern instructions. I mean, it's a freebie, so beggars shouldn't be choosers, and really it's a pretty simple pattern that anyone who's been sewing (and sewing lingerie specifically) can figure out, but...

The instructions are not beginner-friendly. They are brief (about half a page), with no photos or illustrations. If there's an instructional video or sew-along somewhere, it's not linked in either the instructions or the product listing.

And everything about the band frustrates me. Why is it in two pieces instead of one, with two seams instead of one seam? Why have a pattern piece for the suggested length instead of just writing out the suggested band length in the instructions somewhere? Why attach it that way?

And more specifically... So the pattern includes instructions for adapting to a full bust - cutting a larger front piece, then going down a size or two for the back (no further guidance on how to determine whether to go down one or two sizes) - which is great! Bodies are so variable! But there's nothing on adapting the band size. If you use the recommended band length for each size separately, will the band be tight enough under the front bust? Should you use the smaller band length for both the front and back?

This isn't a problem that affects me (being, as I am, of small-average bust), but I can see it causing confusion and frustration to others.

Anyway, weird rant over.

I do want to adapt this pattern and try again with better fabrics and elastics, though.

For starters, I'd either go up a size for the front piece or down a size for the back. I'd also add maybe half an inch of height to the bottom of the front piece, grading it to meet the current side seams.

Ages and ages ago, I bought several yards of a brown/black herringbone cotton flannel. I eventually made a shirtdress out of it, tried wearing it a few times, disliked it, and stashed it in the depths of my closet.

I still had about 2yds of the fabric left though, and it's been sitting in my stash ever since. Mocking me.

I always intended in making a nice, warm winter skirt out of it, but could never make up my mind about the design.

Last year, though, when making some 1940s-inspred plans, I thought I'd make a simple a-line skirt out of it. That would still leave some decent chunks of fabric left, though.

So what about a pinafore?

The Pattern

This pattern is a bit frankenstein-ed. You've been warned.

For the top, I decided to use View C of Simplicity 8243, a sort of 40s capsule wardrobe, as the base.

I traced the pattern in my size onto some tissue paper, tracing just past the marked waistline (since I want the waistline to hit at my natural waist). I did a quick tissue fitting to check the fit and length, then moved on to the skirt.

I measured along the marked waistline on the bodice, not including the darts. I used those measurements as the waistline measurements for my skirt pieces so that the seam lines would match up (except for the darts). I measured down to my desired hemline and flared out the sides based on an era-unknown vintage a-line skirt I own. Because the waist measurement of the bodice included the seam allowance, I didn't need to add seam allowance to the sides of the skirt, just the waist and the hem.

Since the pinafore will have side seams, I added in-seam pockets. I went through my pattern stash and borrowed a pocket pattern where the top got sewn into the waist seam for support.

Fabric, Lining, and Interfacing

I cut both front bodice pieces, both back pieces, and all the skirt pieces out of the flannel.

Then I grabbed some mystery black fabric (probably a poly/cotton or just polyester) from my stash. Out of that, I cut the front and back bodice pieces, button placket facings for the skirt (rectangles the length of the skirt that are 2in wide), four pocket pieces, and several strips of 2in wide bias tape to finish the skirt seams and hem.

I also cut button plackets out of interfacing for both the bodice and skirt. Well, ok, I meant to interface the button plackets, but instead I just totally forgot them. Let's pretend I did interface them.

Construction

I started the construction process with the bodice.

First, I ironed all the interfacing pieces to their respective lining pieces.

On the sewing machine, all the bodice darts were sewn in both the flannel and the lining fabric. Then I placed the right sides of the flannel and lining together and sewed along the button placket neckline and armscyes.

I pulled the front bodice through the shoulder seams and the back to turn the whole thing right side out and gave the whole thing a good ironing.

Before moving onto the skirt, I re-measured between the seams of the bodice to make sure the skirt seams would hit where I wanted them to.

I sewed the pocket lining pieces to the side seams of the skirt panels and bound the seam with bias tape strips that extended slightly past where the pocket stopped being attached.

The back panels of the skirt were sewn right sides together, with one side of a strip of bias tape included. The seams were graded slightly to reduce bulk, and the bias tape was folded around the raw edges of the fabric. The other side of the bias tape was stitched to the seam allowance as well, so there was no stitching showing on the right side of the skirt, but the seam was nicely finished.

The side seams were finished in a similar way, except that the seam and the bias tape diverted from the flannel to follow (and bind) the raw edges of the pocket. (I hope that made sense. It took a lot of thinking to actually do it.) This bit of binding also enclosed the ends of the bias tape that bound the seam connecting the pocket to the skirt panel.

The button facings were sewn to the open front edge of the skirt and the seam allowances were graded to reduce bulk. The seam was ironed so that the facings turned to the inside of the skirt, and the long raw edge of the facings was turned under. I hand sewed the raw edge down to the skirt so that the stitches wouldn't show on the right side. Contrarily, I added a row of machine top-stitching along the center front edge to match the bodice.

To attach the skirt to the bodice, I placed the skirt and bodice with the right sides of the flannel facing each other. I pinned the front opening edges first, then lined up the seams and pinned those. The rest of the fabric was eased together and pinned, and I pinned the upper edge of the pockets in as well. I made sure NOT to pin the bodice lining because I don't want to sew that yet.

The skirt and bodice got sewn together, making sure again that the bodice lining did not get caught in this seam.

Once finished, the seam allowances are ironed upward into the bodice and are, once again, graded to reduce bulk. Then, the raw edge of the lining is tuned under and stitched into place. I could have hand stitched this part, but I decided to take advantage of the forgiving nature of the flannel and practice stitching in the ditch from the right side. This completely encases the raw seams of the bodice!

Next was the skirt, which I faced with 2in wide bias tape made from the black mystery fabric. I machine sewed the first round, pressed the facing into place, and hand stitched the top edge of the facing to the inside of the skirt.

Closures

I was originally going to use some stash buttons for this dress, but I was feeling iffy on the color and there were only six of them, which was fewer than I had envisioned.

That's when I found the shirtdress I had made from this fabric in my closet (I thought it had been taken to the thrift store or something). It had twelve buttons on it, which coordinated with the fabric fairly well. So I stole them from that dress to use on this dress!

I measured and marked out the buttonholes and sewed them by machine (after doing a couple tests on scrap fabric). Then, I marked where the buttons would go on the other side.

I ended up only using eleven of the twelve buttons, so I sewed the spare to one of the inside seams as a future replacement.

Final Thoughts

I am fairly happy with how this dress turned out, and I expect it will get much more use than the shirtdress I made before. It's a bit bulky in the waist, but I'm happy with how all the edges were finished and all the raw edges hidden.

My second biggest complaint is that it's a smidge larger than I'd like it to be in the bust and waist. I keep telling myself that the extra space is a good thing, because I can wear more layers under it.

My first biggest complaint is that I dragged my feet so long on finishing it that summer has finally decided to set in, and now it's too hot to wear this pinafore! (I started it in January. It's mid-May now.) Ah well, I'll dig it out in the fall and I'm sure I'll be happy to have it.

My big project for the Regency festival I'm going to is a redingote! Spring weather is unpredictable, so I really needed an outer layer in case it was cold or wet.

The Plan

I pretty quickly chose Laughing Moon Mercantile #130, View B (with the cape, obviously), as my pattern. The menswear/military-inspired look is one you see commonly in fashion plates.

I purchased a blue boiled wool blend from Mood Fabrics and pulled some black cotton and poly/cotton bits from my stash for the facings and linings.

At some point along the way, I also decided to make the top and the skirt separate pieces, like you often see in riding habits from this time, for maximum wardrobe possibilities. Plus, this way I could make just the bodice if I ran out of time, without ruining my plans or wearing an unfinished garment.

So this project will be in three parts - the spencer (because that's what a short jacket without a skirt would be called), the petticoat/skirt, and the cape.

The Execution

The assembly of the spencer/bodice is fairly straightforward. The outer bodice gets assembled, and the lining bodice, and each sleeve separately (two outer and two lining).

The collars took a moment to wrap my head around - there are four pattern pieces, all very similar looking, but each slightly different. The pattern didn't call for contrast facings like I wanted, so it took me a moment to figure out which two pieces should be cut from the navy wool, and which two should be cut from black cotton.

Then attaching the collars to the bodice neckline confused me because the collars seemed to continue into the lapel? And the instructions said that was correct? But then I realized that it was for the sake of seam allowances and everything made sense again.

With both the bodice layers constructed, I finally dug out my short stays so I could fit the bust darts on the lower edge of the bodice. I couldn't be bothered to get the pattern pieces back out and mark the suggested darts - I just fit it on me and made sure everything lined up nicely. With those marked, I pinned and sewed the darts on both layers and gave everything a good press. With this wool, the wooden clapper/point-turner I inherited from my grandmother came in handy!

Next, the pattern called for pinning the lining and outer fabrics right-sides together and sewing along the collar and lapel. Because I wanted to close the lower edge (the skirt will be separate, remember?), I also needed to sew the waistline edge. The weird seam allowance overlap required some pre-clipping and necessitated sewing that outer edge in two parts (the three edges of the collar, then lapel > bottom > lapel), but I managed to do it correctly enough the first time around. Huzzah!

I clipped all the corners and curves, turned the whole thing out through one of the armholes, and gave the whole thing a very good press.

The instructions recommend at this point that you tack the outer and lining collars together along the center back seam to keep things from shifting, which I did.

I also basted the armscye edges together at this point to make treating the outer and lining layers as one easier when I got to attaching the sleeves.

I also took a moment to sew the cuff edges of the sleeves together, outer to lining, right sides together. That got turned out and pressed as well, and I tacked the seam allowances together just below the elbow gathering to keep the sleeve from twisting up in weird ways. The tacking wasn't in the instructions, but it seemed like a good idea.

I really liked the way the pattern instructs you to attach the sleeves - you pin and gather the outer sleeve into the armscye and sew it to bodice, treating the bodice outer and lining as one. The seam allowance gets pressed into the sleeve. Then, you pull the sleeve lining up and carefully hand sew it to the bodice lining along the seam line, folding the sleeve lining seam allowance under so you end up with a perfectly encased armscye seam! The hand sewing part is a bit fiddly, but worth it.

Then all that was left was the closures. This was the one thing I disliked about the instructions - after all the detailed assembly instructions it just tells you to add closures. No guidance about what kind of closure to use or where to put them.

I opted to use small black hooks and bars, with one on the inner flap of the wrap front and one on the outer flap, both as close to the waistline as possible without them showing.

The Results

I really like how this spencer turned out! I got a lot of compliments on it while I was working on it at our sewing retreat, too.

The collar is absolutely fabulous, I just regret not using an interfacing like the pattern said too. The collar sort of wants to splay out instead of standing up. I've ironed them repeatedly and I'm putting pins in it while not being worn, which I'm hoping will help.

The fit in the shoulders is decent considering I didn't bother to do a mockup or any fitting. I run a bit wide in the shoulders, and my shoulders are a bit hunched, which makes shoulders difficult. I get a bit of wrinkling between the front shoulders, but nothing serious, and it's still comfortable. The fullest part of the bust is also a bit large for me, so I may pad it out a bit (scandalous, I know).