So the last few weeks I've hardly touched any projects due to my mom being in the hospital for her knee surgery and we also had a death in the family. However, Friday I realized how short of a time period I have before the Texas Renaissance Festival in October. I hadn't even started anything related yet so I broke down and began working.
I started with the shirt thinking it would be the easiest and the cheapest thing to make. I had two patterns picked out for him and he chose the 4059 in a modified version A which is great because I've got some brainstorming ideas forming for a true matching set for us using the true version A and the Simplicity 2589 gown. Everything will be done the same as the true version A except the collar (no lace) so I will get the kinks worked out now instead of later. And boy am I glad I did.
I started with the shirt thinking it would be the easiest and the cheapest thing to make. I had two patterns picked out for him and he chose the 4059 in a modified version A which is great because I've got some brainstorming ideas forming for a true matching set for us using the true version A and the Simplicity 2589 gown. Everything will be done the same as the true version A except the collar (no lace) so I will get the kinks worked out now instead of later. And boy am I glad I did.
Everything went fine and I was on a roll until it came to actually putting the pieces together. The directions were VERY vague. I kept staring at the picture and then the directions and tried to figure out where to start. Normally the directions are very clear and the picture show you step by step what to do. These directions were accumulated into two pictures and two steps of directions that had like 10 sub directions under each. I thought I was following the directions pretty well until it was time to put the gathers in. Then I realized I did everything just wrong.
So from here on I will try and explain the directions as clear as I can.
The first step is telling you to take the two front pieces and sew them together from the large dot to the bottom. You will do this twice. Once with the lining and once with the outer fabric. I got confused and sewed from the large dot up and sewed the lining and front together instead of separately and it went downhill from there.
The second step is to sew, separately, the lining and outside at the shoulder seams. So you will have two identically set up, but separate, pieces of shirt/yoke.
Now they want you to sew the two front pieces together so they make the V for the collar. Now is when you sew from the large dot up. You should be able to flip the piece inside out and it will be right. The two seams for the shoulders should be meeting up on the inside. So the outside and inside of the shoulders looks the same. No excess from the seams should be visible.
The next step is the gathering. Increase your top and bottom stitch length as high (loose) as it will go
and sew across at about 1/2" from the top. Do not back stitch. You want to be able to move the fabric along with the thread. Once you have done both pieces take one end of your string and gently pull it while sliding the fabric towards the other end. This will crinkle the fabric and "gather" it together to fit the shirt top/yoke. So crinkle away and make it fit the yoke.
and sew across at about 1/2" from the top. Do not back stitch. You want to be able to move the fabric along with the thread. Once you have done both pieces take one end of your string and gently pull it while sliding the fabric towards the other end. This will crinkle the fabric and "gather" it together to fit the shirt top/yoke. So crinkle away and make it fit the yoke.
Once you have fitted it to the top/yoke, pin right sides together so the top and the bottom meet. When you flip back over the gathered part of the shirt will be on the bottom and the bottom hem of the top will be tucked under. Do this for the back side as well.
Now sew the pieces together using the 5/8" seam allowance. Flip it down and voila! it looks like a baby doll dress! HAHA!
Now on the inside/lining of the fabric take the bottom edge and fold it
over to your 5/8" seam allowance and iron. Cut the excess down to 1/4". I
did an extra step because my fabric was starting to fray a bit. I
folded the bottom back to where I ironed it and then ran it through the
machine to make sure the fraying would stop.
So this is what it looks like so far on the inside with the gathers sewn on and the inside lining ready to be hemmed and pinned. The picture also shows what the inside lining should look like at the shoulders too.
When I pinned the lining to the front I kept the edge right above the 5/8" seam line I sewed attaching the front the the gathers. This way I could hide the stitching because you are going to have to hand sew the lining to the front. So put on some good TV/Netflix and get to slip stitching.
Also, I as I was looking at attaching the collar I noticed I skipped a step. I was supposed to baste stitch the collar before slip stitching the lining. Oops. However, it didn't make a difference doing it after. Mostly that was because I had pinned the shoulders together.
Don't know how to slip stitch? Here is an excellent tutorial!
Now that you have all that done its time to sew the sides together! Match the two edges up and sew along your 5/8" seamline. Woo hoo we have a tank top! Lets go on to the collar!
Just to save time, I applied the interfacing to all parts that required interfacing instead of just the collar. Then, because the iron was still on I went ahead and pressed under the 5/8" seam on the non interfaced parts. Then I put them right sides together and sewed the sides and top keeping the folded edge open. Then I trimmed the seams and corner and turned them right side out and pressed them.
Here is the basted collar before and after clipping curves. I went in a little less than 1/2".
Just to save time, I applied the interfacing to all parts that required interfacing instead of just the collar. Then, because the iron was still on I went ahead and pressed under the 5/8" seam on the non interfaced parts. Then I put them right sides together and sewed the sides and top keeping the folded edge open. Then I trimmed the seams and corner and turned them right side out and pressed them.
Here is the basted collar before and after clipping curves. I went in a little less than 1/2".
I attached the collar and then slip stitched the folded side. Now its time to work on the sleeves which are super easy. Sew together each sleeve from the big dot up. Take the section from the big dot down and press it open. Fold under the seams to the pressed line and press again. Pin that section and sew it like the directions describe. Since there were more pictures for these steps I felt more comfortable than that silly mess at the beginning.
Gathering time! Sew the top edge from dot to dot (this should be the middle of the top of the sleeve). Also gather the entire bottom of the sleeve. I had my machine gather the stitches for me and it gathered pretty close to what I needed. I had to tighten it up more though. It will look like this when done:
The next steps I did out of order which is fine because it doesn't screw anything up. I mostly wanted to just focus on one thing at a time. So I attached the sleeve to the armhole instead of finishing up the bottom of the sleeve. I did the extra row of stitches inside the armhole like it says and I trimmed the seam allowance down. Be careful and don't make your machine go fast over the tight ruffles at the top. I swear I almost broke a needle at first.
Now that the arms are attached its time to work on the cuffs. Pull or push out the gathers to fit the cuff and pin in place. This section was kind of tight when sewing so it pulled the gathers on one of the ends out of alignment. So keep an eye on everything when sewing this part. So when you have both of these sections done clip the seam allowance down a bit and fold over. Now slip stitch both cuffs.
I used a 1 inch hem for this shirt. I ironed the hem at 1" and then, because this material was fraying like crazy, I folded the edge of the hem to the ironed crease and ironed again. Then I used a long zig zag stitch over the folded section. I'm kinda mixed on if I actually like this or not. I was being adventurous. But this part of the shirt will be tucked in anyway so it really doesn't matter if it looks perfect.
All that was left now was the buttons. I got a new machine for Christmas, a Brother CS-6000i, and haven't had a chance to do buttons with it. I HATE buttons. I have my Singer Simple to thank for that. It was a nightmare using that machine. My bobbin always jammed and made birds nest no matter how many times I cleaned, threaded, and even respun the bobbin and housing. I hated the whole mechanism. My new machine has a drop in bobbin and I have yet to have a real problem with it. So I grabbed a scrap and got the button assembly ready. I selected the first button hole and pushed the pedal to start. I was tense and waiting for the machine to start freaking out but there was nothing. Nothing but pure wonderful button makingness! This machine even slows down when the button is finished to let you know its done! It was MAGIC! I love buttons on this machine!
Back to the shirt. Mark where you want your button and run it though the machine. Presto! Button holes! Take the seam ripper and carefully open the section in the middle. Now align where you want the button and hand sew it to the cuff.
You are now done!!!
The finished product should look like this. As an option you can add the hook and eye to the collar to keep it closed but I felt like it would choke Charles so I omitted that. When I make another one of these shirts next year it will probably be with the lace trim.
My next project which I will be starting today will be the pants for this pattern. I also have a cape for myself that I will be working on. I also got my patterns for next years costume in. I most likely will be creating the farthingale (hoop skirt) and bum roll this summer so I can use them in my current dress.
For further reading here are posts on:
The pants
The doublet
Thanks for reading!
