progress on Inara's oatmeal skirt
a progress review - cross posted on my lj
sewaddicted
d'oh photo's not loading so hyperlinks instead
I procrastinated badly and got nothing done on Friday night, nor Saturday morning (it was a glorious day so I got my laundry done & some food to sustain me for the rest of the day).
I was about to join the lower skirt sections & start on the ruffles when I realised that I needed (for my peace of mind) to stabilise the back drape, and at the same time support the section as 11 rows of ruffles were going to get heavy.
I used cotton unbleached calico - think it's called quilters muslin in the USA - and cut the back section in 2 pieces so that I could have the extentension (godet part) on the straight grain to stop the bias from stretching out with the ruffle weight. I then also stitched some narrow ribbon along the centre back seam and half way between that and the straight grain.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/KiwiW/blog/stabilizingbackdrape.jpg
I would have used white cotton tape, but couldn't find it in my stash. I did find scraps of pink and blue ribbon, so just used what I had to hand.
I also basted the interfacing with some vertical rows, my reasoning being that the ruffles would be crossing them so I didn't need cross hatched basting.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/KiwiW/blog/bastingtheinterfacing.jpg
I measured all the ruffle rows (actually half the row) and listed them on the first piece of paper I could find, so that I could cross them off as I sewed.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/KiwiW/blog/measuredtheplacementlines.jpg
I cut all the ruffles, at a gathering ratio of 1.5:1 as the fabric isn't fine. A finer fabric would need more to gather. Since I'd measured half the row, I just cut 3x the measurement. I pinned the length to each, or I'd have gotten very confused very quickly about which was which.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/KiwiW/blog/labelsontheruffles.jpg
I sewed a second time around for strength and to keep the seam allowance flat.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/KiwiW/blog/firstrufflerow.jpg
and here's the 7th row of ruffles pinned to sew - the first thing to do tonight.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/KiwiW/blog/7throwpinnedtosew.jpg
the bottom 4 rows took 1.25 hours *each*, so thankfully the rows are getting shorter.
sewaddicted
d'oh photo's not loading so hyperlinks instead
I procrastinated badly and got nothing done on Friday night, nor Saturday morning (it was a glorious day so I got my laundry done & some food to sustain me for the rest of the day).
I was about to join the lower skirt sections & start on the ruffles when I realised that I needed (for my peace of mind) to stabilise the back drape, and at the same time support the section as 11 rows of ruffles were going to get heavy.
I used cotton unbleached calico - think it's called quilters muslin in the USA - and cut the back section in 2 pieces so that I could have the extentension (godet part) on the straight grain to stop the bias from stretching out with the ruffle weight. I then also stitched some narrow ribbon along the centre back seam and half way between that and the straight grain.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/KiwiW/blog/stabilizingbackdrape.jpg
I would have used white cotton tape, but couldn't find it in my stash. I did find scraps of pink and blue ribbon, so just used what I had to hand.
I also basted the interfacing with some vertical rows, my reasoning being that the ruffles would be crossing them so I didn't need cross hatched basting.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/KiwiW/blog/bastingtheinterfacing.jpg
I measured all the ruffle rows (actually half the row) and listed them on the first piece of paper I could find, so that I could cross them off as I sewed.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/KiwiW/blog/measuredtheplacementlines.jpg
I cut all the ruffles, at a gathering ratio of 1.5:1 as the fabric isn't fine. A finer fabric would need more to gather. Since I'd measured half the row, I just cut 3x the measurement. I pinned the length to each, or I'd have gotten very confused very quickly about which was which.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/KiwiW/blog/labelsontheruffles.jpg
I sewed a second time around for strength and to keep the seam allowance flat.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/KiwiW/blog/firstrufflerow.jpg
and here's the 7th row of ruffles pinned to sew - the first thing to do tonight.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/KiwiW/blog/7throwpinnedtosew.jpg
the bottom 4 rows took 1.25 hours *each*, so thankfully the rows are getting shorter.