What a great idea it was to get a new toy whilst on holiday! I devoted the whole day to sewing yesterday with the aim of making something using my new baby where possible & enjoying dear faithful Pfaff to complete. It is positively purring after its service … the “hammering” has gone, it glides and figuratively whistles its way through its work.
I wanted to use some of my stash, to make a version of the Simplicity 2599 top made here with added darts. The material I was using was from a favourite vintage skirt I have had for years, picked up in a car boot sale. Beautiful crisp cotton with fuchsia roses and grey checker/ basket weave background. In its previous life (when it fitted me) it was a simple gathered skirt,with no shaping, which meant that I had a good stretch of fabric to re-use. However, there was not quite enough to make the full length, but I think this has actually improved the finished article.
To review then, I was pleased with how much I did use my overlocker. The ruffles all had rolled edges (see the pic above) & I absolutely loved the way this turned out. I also used the overlock stitch for the side seams and shoulder seams. The back seam was the existing skirt seam with selvedges so I kept that one in place. I also finished the hem & ruffle seam edges with overlock stich – so neat! That meant that I used faithful Pfaff for the neck edge, attaching the ruffles, hem & the armhole facings. This pattern already uses bias facings for the armholes, which converted me the last time I made this blouse. At this time, I did use proper facings as drafted in the pattern and I find that they don’t sit as well as they could (perhaps that’s my ironing!). So this time I made bias facings out of contrasting pink checked cotton for both armholes and neck edges (to conserve precious vintage material for another baby girl make) . As I was pinning them down, I noticed that I could create a fake piping look by letting a little of the pink stay showing on the outside edge … cute! Now I decided to make fewer ruffles than the pattern said, & cut, pinned, hemmed & attached three to the front following the stitching lines. However, whether it was something that I misinterpreted, it didn’t balance out as although the stitching lines were central, the ruffles lie to the right – so I rectified this by whipping up another ruffle to make a four ruffle frontage. I also added a line of edge stitching to each ruffle by their seam to encourage them to fold over & lie to their left & not to flap around too much!
It was road tested last night & was great. The length is an improvement too. Ra ra!!
