Simplicity 1818--How to Put A Lot of Fabric onto a Small Waistband

Before making my first Victorian skirt, I'd given no thought to how all those yards of fabric were attached to a small waistband. If someone had asked me, I would have guessed that the fabric was gathered and sewn onto the waistband in the usual way. I would have been very wrong.

The skirt from Simplicity 1818 is 170 inches wide--the width doesn't vary with the size of the pattern, only the size of the waistband changes. The waistband I'm using for this skirt has a total length of 29.5 inches. Gathering 170 inches of fabric onto a waistband that size would probably be impossible. No...I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it is impossible--especially if one is using taffeta, as I am.

Instead of gathers, the waistband is pleated in two different ways. The front and sides are pleated with a series of overlapping pleats while the back of the skirt is constructed with a clever kind of pleat--the accordion pleat--which allows a large amount of fabric to be attached to a very small length of waistband. Intrigued? Please read on... 

The accordion pleats are on the left, the overlapping pleats on the right.

The first step to making an accordion pleat is to mark dots, using a disappearing ink marker, every 3/8 of an inch across the 52 inch back panel, and then making a second set of dots 1/4 inch below that.Then buttonhole twist is used to sew through the dots. 

After completing this step, you get to abandon the accordion pleats for a bit and forge on with the more familiar overlapping pleats. These are made by folding the skirt at marked places and bringing those folds to a specific point and pinning them in place.

Overlapping pleats pinned in place in front and on sides. The back is prepped for the accordion pleats to be made next.

As the fabric is folded again and again to make the overlapping pleats, it gets very thick--too thick to apply the waistband in the normal fashion.

Therefore the waistband is sewn on by hand using a whip stitch. This is a lot easier than it sounds. I rather enjoy it, but a sharp needle is a must. At this point, only the overlapping pleats are attached to the waistband, leaving the rear portion of the skirt unattached.

The waistband being sewn to the skirt front.

After the pleated front and sides are attached to the waistband, it's time to deal with the back. As you can see, there's a lot of fabric to go on a very small amount of waistband. The first time I made this pattern, I was like, "Oh, yeah. This is going to work." But it did.

In this view, the skirt is folded in half. The front and sides are attached to each end of the waistband, leaving the back part unattached.The portion of the waistband held in place by the shears is the amount of waistband available for the entire back section of the skirt. 

To start making accordion pleats, all you do is pull the strings, creating folds.

Only the front edge of the fold is sewn to the waistband.... 

...so that the back part of the fold swings free.This is what allows a tremendous length of fabric to be attached to a short span of waistband.

Outside view of accordion pleats attached to waistband.

Inside view of accordion pleats, showing how only front fold is attached to waistband (lined in black cotton poly) while the rear fold swings free.

Front view of overlapped pleats:

Here's the back with the accordion pleats:

And here's my unpaid assistant, Tillie, modeling the unhemmed skirt. The skirt is supported by a 120 inch hoop and a crinoline.

Next, the jacket, which I hope to finish tomorrow before heading back to school on Tuesday. Wish me luck.

Back in the Saddle Again (or rather in the rolling chair in front of my sewing machine)

I woke up this morning to find out that I’m the featured member on the Sewing Pattern Review. That was exciting and immediately made me aware of the fact that I haven’t blogged in a long time. I have a good excuse.  I started a new teaching job at a rural high school at the end of August and had book deadlines on September 30 and November 1.  Note to self—don’t do this again.

The job is working out well. I love working at a school with only 40 kids in the high school. I teach six different subjects, but my big classes have twelve kids in them.  Our football field is interesting—the north goal post is in Oregon and the south goal post is in Nevada.  I took the student council to a regional conference. We rode on a school bus for seventeen hours round trip for a five hour conference. Good thing I love my kids, eh? They were excellent, but had to eat every hundred miles. I found as long as I fed them on schedule, peace reigned.

The writing went well, too, as in I survived the deadlines and I like the story. All for a Cowboy will be released next June. I also received the cover for my January 2014 release, Cowgirl in High Heels.  Nice, eh?

And the sewing…I haven’t been able to sew for two months and it killed me. I just started a project last weekend—a Dicken’s Fair dress for my son’s lovely girlfriend, Rachel using Simplicity 1818. I should have the dress finished within a week now that I’m in the job groove and have no pressing book deadlines. I also have to make my husband a new pair of wool slacks for the event, which means searching through the wool stash to see if I have anything suitable. I don’t think I have time to order new fabric.

 

Rachel’s dress is a gorgeous burgundy/cinnamon taffeta. (It is so difficult to photograph taffeta, since it reflects light, but trust me, it's a gorgeous color.)

She’s decided to leave it

untrimmed for now, because the color is so rich and lovely.  I’m currently working on the skirt and I’m quite happy that I’ve made this pattern two previous times, so there are no surprises. That doesn’t mean I won’t screw up…it just means I won’t be surprised when I do it.

I have a three-day weekend ahead of me, so will pop back in a day or two from now with a Victorian dress update and some photos of my next vintage project.

Take care and glad to see you here,

Jeannie

Vogue 1136 Retro Jacket Visits San Francisco

I've just returned from a trip to San Francisco where I ran The Giants Race half marathon and generally hung out and ate good food. Lots of good food. Nothing like burning off 1500 calories during a race to justify eating 4000 calories after the race. While in the city, my husband wanted to take  photos of the historic San Francisco street cars that run on the F-Line and use them as a backdrop for a retro shoot. These cars are authentic and come from around the world. They are, in a word, cool!

The retro shoot was the perfect opportunity to wear the jacket I made from Vogue 1136.

Now mind you, these street cars were loaded with people, which made me feel a bit self conscious as I chased cars and pretended to be waiting for the cars, however, the street car riders seemed to enjoy the spectacle.

My hat is a vintage hat that was made in San Francisco many years ago. I love this hat, even if I do occasionally get the Minnie Mouse effect.

After we got a zillion street car shots,  it was off to the pier to get some mood shots that the husband can crop and turn into black and whites and stuff like that. He hasn't worked with any of these except for the last one.

And finally a nice Irish pub. Here I am impatiently waiting for my reward--Smithwicks!

I love San Francisco.

Tape Isn't Always the Answer

I'm one of those people who  believe that there isn't much that can't be accomplished with adhesive tape. I use tape to mark seam lines,

to hold small pieces in place,

Pouting cat

and recently, when my cat pushed the edge of the window screen free and escaped, I duct taped the screen
to the house until my husband had time to fix it. The cat, having enjoyed a brief taste of freedom, was quite annoyed to find the screen immovable, while I, on the other hand, was happy that she wasn't wandering outside with the coyotes. Thank goodness for duct tape.

The first vintage pattern I sewed--Simplicity 1690--had two damaged pattern pieces, one of which was ripped in half. In my very first blog post, I wondered why the original owner hadn't taped together the pattern pieces. Well, thank goodness she hadn't.

I recently bought a pattern for a 1940's dress and some of the pattern pieces were taped.

The tape had gone all gunky over the years and the semi-liquified adhesive had soaked through the layers of folded tissue.

It may be hard to see, but this is the adhesive residue resisting
my efforts to separate the pattern layers.

Peeling the layers of pattern apart without damaging the delicate tissue was a slow and painstaking process--and not fully successful.

When I finished, I had gooey areas on the pattern--and on my camera from the adhesive that was still sticking to my fingers after peeling the pattern pieces apart.

The tape had left residue on the pattern pieces that had been in contact with the taped pattern piece.

In order to store the pattern again, I cut tissue paper and set it on top of the gooey area where it adhered from the residual gunk.

And then, after all that, I realized that this particular pattern was missing so many pieces--the sleeve and the complicated bodice front to name a few--that I had to abandon the project. But I learned something about tape--it doesn't solve all problems. Sometimes it makes new ones.

A Tale of Two Red Jackets

The Sewing

I recently made two red jackets--one planned and one on impulse--from lightweight polyester crepe. The first jacket is Vintage Vogue 1136, which I made to go with the sleeveless dress from the same pattern--the dress you may remember as the one that seriously challenged me with back bodice issues.

Although the fabrics came from the same swatch family in the mail order fabric catalog I favor and appeared to match well...

...once sewn into garments, they didn't.

I think I would have been more successful if I had used the red for the dress and the print for the jacket, but even then....

The jacket did look nice with my store-bought black knit pencil skirt, however, so that will be how I wear it.

I wasn't sure about the flanges at the sides, but my husband (a fan of the forties) liked them. I shortened the flanges about an inch, because they were just too long for my build.

I also had to shorten the back bodice about an inch so it hung better.

And, of course, since I'm living the curse of the bound button hole, I made seven of the suckers, --the seventh is set an an angle in the yet to attached peplum--using yet another method, which I'll probably torture you with in a future blog post. Nothing like sharing the pain.

After my customary battle with the bound buttonhole, I relaxed by sewing on neato black and silver buttons.

I like the sleeve detail a lot.

I made the shoulders pads using the pattern instructions and this time there were no issues.

The second jacket was made on a whim when I realized that the fabric matched one of the reds in my New Look 6514 dress.

I dug through my extensive pattern stash and came up with Simplicity 4230--a 2006 pattern that has zero buttonholes, which seemed perfect after making the my previous jacket. I made the black cropped version using the three quarter sleeves on the jacket above it.

I think the jacket looks nice with the dress and gives it a more businesslike look.

I used muslin as the interfacing for both jackets. I've never been a fan of fusibles, although they are useful under certain circumstances. Instead I use sew-in interfacing whenever possible, and muslin works really well for a soft drape.

And that's about it for the two red jackets. I still have some of the red fabric left and I'm thinking of using it for a nice 30's pattern I just got--just as soon as I have time to grade it up a size. I think the drapy crepe will look great in either style.

The Writing
Before I sign off, a writing update. I turned in my final proofread of Cowgirl in High Heels and am now at work one the last book of The Montana Way series, Shae's Story. (That's the working title.) I'm also playing around with some proposals and a novella, also set in Montana.

I'm writing in the morning, sewing between 10:00 and 11:00 before the power goes off (I live off the grid for those new to the blog) and trying to get a little more sewing in during the evenings--although catching up on the fifth season of Breaking Bad and the new Project Runway is playing havoc with my evening schedule.