DIY GIRL'S FROCK: The story of a purple dress - Part 2

Welcome back!

Here is the continuation to the bodice we created here DIY GIRL'S FROCK: Story of a purple dress- Part 1

The pieces for the skirt are basically rectangles with the height corresponding to the length plus seam allowances.And the breadth of the rectangle being, double the waist circumference if you need lots of pleats, as I have done (this can be customized).

Now we start with the skirt. You have two separate pieces the outer piece and the inner lining. We are going to be adding some crinoline to the inner lining to give the jersey skirt a bit of poof.

After the side seams, when joining the back seams of the skirt allow for a clearance for the zipper to be placed.
I always leave the zipper longer and involving the skirt and not just the bodice. Helps in dressing up the tiny kids.

You may join the lining and the skirt now, or wait till we have gathered them to fit the bodice.
I chose to gather the lining and skirt separately and then attach to the bodice.

Before you gather the skirt we need to measure the waist circumference of the bodice. This is the length to which we are going to gather the skirt. You may add darts on the bodice if you prefer.

Gather away and sew it down. I prefer to gather by hand basting.

Now we need to get back to the bodice. Remember how we had left the side seams of the bodice of around 1" un-stitched. We are going to be adding our sash here now. You can make a sash yourself, but I chose to use a ribbon instead. A bit lazy :-)

We are going to attach away the gathered skirt (bodice and lining attached and gathered), to the bodice.

The dress is nearly getting ready. We have the zipper next. I love the invisible zipper, they finish up beautifully. Once you get a hang of inserting them you are going to be hooked.

The invisible zipper need to be prepared first by opening the zipper up and ironing on it to make it flat. This helps you to sew it as close to the zipped end. The image shows you the difference between the original zipper on the left and the right one which is opened up and ironed.

Now place the zipper on the dress as above and pin away. You need to place the zipper facing up on the dress. Then twist the ends such that the zipper end faces outward. Do I make sense?? Look closely at the image it gives a better idea.
Now stitch closely to the zipper as you can. You may use a zipper foot in your sewing machine, I used a regular sewing foot.  The cut off the excess zipper and stitch down with the skirt.

You have an amazing tutorial here for an invisible zipper http://lladybird.com/2014/01/28/invisible-zippers-my-method/
You can get wonderful ideas of how to finish the ends of the zipper too.

I finished up the zipper and this is how it looks when closed. Added up a pearl button and a button loop to the end. You can add anything buttons, hooks, etc.

Look how I finished up this project.
I left the seams of the skirt at the bottom untouched as it was jersey and I got the selvage.
Added a few embellishments, puffed sleeves with piping, and there is the beautiful dress. This is a basic model which can be modified into many ways. You can add sleeves, embellishments, sash, broach, fancy pleats, literally anything.

You can stop at the left, lower picture for the basic frock and design it as you please. Sorry, the pics don't seem that great. The little drama queen would just not pose.

Well there you go! A pretty little dress for a pretty little girl.
My daughter loved her new dress!

Go on make one for yours!!
FARZ

This post is linked to
coloursdekor.blogspot.ae: Weekly story 3
April linky party @www.notjustahousewife.net

CELEBRATIONS: We have been featured here: www.threadingmyway.com
Delighted. :-)
Thank you, Pam.