You may have seen in an earlier post, the beginnings of this project that tells the AS&E Issue this smocked sailor dress was in. To create the dress, I am used the Sea Urchin pattern in pages 36-39 of Australian Smocking and Embroidery Magazine Issue #33 from 1995 (C) Country Bumpkin (now out of print).
Today's tutorial starts out with tips for creating the sailor collar (and some errata I would change in the pattern instructions regarding the collar) and then will proceed to attaching the square yoke bodice to the smocked skirt of the dress. I still haven't set in the sleeves, but hey, it's Work In Progress Wednesday--so maybe by Wednesday night, I'll set the sleeves in and update this post! :)
CONSTRUCTING THE SAILOR COLLAR TIPS:
ATTACHING THE SKIRT TO THE SQUARE YOKE
This photo shows the square yoke attached correctly to the smocking. The left hand side collar is lifted up to show the completed seam. |
Attaching the back square yoke to the skirt is the same for all square yoked dresses, both smocked and plain. First, I ensure that there is a 1 inch wide strip of interfacing ironed to the lining of the center of the back-yoke piece. This not only helps with turning, it also provides stability for the button band in the dress and structure while sewing in the button holes. When attached the back skirt, I sew the placket according to the pattern directions, sewing it to the inside then flipping it to the outside and top-stitching it closed. The back skirt is gathered and the placket is then aligned with the center pieced of the dress back (aligned over the interfacing). In this step, I do not treat the yoke lining as one as I did the front. I've tired it before and it leaves a raw edge on the opening--instead I do use the heirloom method here. The skirt is sewn to the back bodice piece, then the back bodice lining is flipped over onto the back piece and whip-stitched closed. This encases the raw edge created by the placket and seam allowance. |
Because this dress is eyelet lace, I wanted to ensure that the bottom seams of the lace aligned. To do this, I used a French side-seam, starting at the bottom of the lace and sewed backward to the arm holes; thus allowing any ease to be taken or given in the arm hole area. Traditional methods have you sew the sleeves in first, then sew down the sleeve and dress length, but this creates ease in the hem which would make the lace possibly not match at the bottom. I'll have to set the sleeves in later...but since it's WiP Wednesday--here's my post for now. Hopefully later today I can update this showing how I set in the sleeves. Also, if you were to sew a French "Fancy Band" in an Heirloom sewing skirt, this bottom-up seam would be necessary to ensure all of the pin-tucks and lace inserts align. Then the sleeves would have to be set in as well. |