Tutorial: bubble hem with pick-up skirt

After 2.5 days of solid sewing and a lot of trial and error, I am finally happy with my entry for the RTW contest, as inspired by the Gossip Girl green dress (in reality I think this was a dress designed by Lorick New York). Before posing for the PR contest and uploading my entry, I thought I'd share a couple of techniques that I have tried out when making this dress, in case anyone would find it helpful. 

Here's a sneaky peek of the finished dress (more pictures to come later of course) before I start the first tutorial:

OK so this tutorial is on how to make the skirt, namely the bubble skirt with pick-up details. Here we go: 

Step 1 Cut the skirt pieces

I cut the skirt layer as a half circle, made of 3 pieces: skirt front and 2 skirt back pieces. If you need help in drafting a half circle skirt, there are lots of tutorials out there if you google it (and that's the reason why I didn't think it was necessary to repeat it here). I cut the skirt layer about 70cm long. 

If you want a fuller skirt with more drama, or equally a slimmer look, then you will need to adjust the skirt pieces accordingly, eg cut a circle skirt or a more A-line skirt. 

Also if do not want to have the pick-up skirt detail, then the skirt pieces can be much shorter, they will only need to be slightly longer than the lining. Similarly, if you want less pick-ups, then you could shorten the skirt layer also. 

Step 2 Cut the skirt lining layer

Then we need to cut the lining pieces. The key for the bubble hem is to use the lining layer to structure the look. You will need to cut the lining pieces narrower (but do bear in mind that you've gotta be able to walk in it...) and shorter. 

Using the same waste measurement as the skirt pieces, I cut the 3 lining pieces, with the length slightly shorter than what I want the finished skirt to be (as the bubble will make the skirt longer). 

The top left corner of this picture shows what I used as a skirt lining pattern (I used the same pattern to cut all 3 pieces -- the front piece on fold and the back pieces allowing for seam allowances). 

Step 3 Assemble the skirt 

For the skirt, with right sides together ("RST"), sew skirt back pieces to front piece at side seams. 

Then sew back pieces together, leaving a gap at the top of the skirt back for inserting a zip later. I left 12cm but this will depend on person. 

Press open seam allowances. 

Step 4 Assemble skirt lining

Similarly follow the same steps to assemble the skirt lining. Now you should have both layers done, except for the partially open centre back seams. 

Step 5 Gather the bottom of the skirt layer                                          

  

On the wrong side of the skirt, using the longest stitch on the machine, and with very strong thread (this is crucial if you want to avoid the disappointment of a broken thread when you're almost done with the gathering...I've been there! although the colour of the thread will not matter as it will not show on the finished project), sew 2 lines of running stitches next to one another, at about 0.5cm and 1cm respectively to the bottom of the skirt. 

DO NOT back stitch at the start or the end. 

Pull the threads at both ends to gather bottom of the skirt to the length of the bottom of the skirt lining layer. 

Step 6 Attach bottom of skirt to lining

With RST, sew the gathered skirt bottom to the bottom of the skirt lining, with 1.5cm seam allowances (so that the gathering stitches won't show through). 

Step 7 (optional) - gather dress net for extra drama

This step is optional - I used a layer of gathered dress net to make the skirt more poofy and fun but only one layer so it's not too crazy and that I still can find an occasion to wear the dress. 

I recycled some of the dress net from my wedding dress toile #1 (which I have now cut into pieces to be reused!) and cut it to be slightly narrow than the length of the skirt lining, and 5 metres long. I left a gap at the centre back again so the zipper won't get all jammed with the dress net. 

Then I gathered it at the top until it matches the top of the skirt lining and attached it to the wrong side of the lining. 

Step 8 - sew skirt to lining at the top

With the wrong sides of the skirt and lining together (with or without the dress net), I sewed the top of the layers together, leaving the zipper space open still. The above is a photo of the layers just before I sewed the top together. 

Now you should have a skirt with bubble hem! Here're a couple of pictures (the one on the dress form was placed on top of the bodice, before they were attached)

Now the pick up skirt. This is more to do with trial and error, until you are happy with the result. As the name suggests, you would need to pick up a bit of the skirt layer, and pin it to the lining layer. If you are using dress net, I would pin it through both the net and the lining. 

I worked my way down from top of the skirt, until I pinned the whole skirt. Here are a couple of pictures from when I was trying the pick-ups (one is on my toile - I did this to figure out how long and wide my skirt layer needed to be):

I think the pick-up skirt is really versatile - you could make it as random as you like, or as structured as you like. Different fabrics will also give this a different look. I wanted mine to be quite relaxed and loose, and thought my attempt in the above picture was a little too tight. so I tried again and again!

Once you're happy with how it looks (do make sure you actually are 100% happy... as I had to unpick a couple of times!), hand sew the pick-ups in place with tailor's tacks. 

And this is what I ended up with (front and back)

Note that for the back, I worked around the zipper (as it's quite short anyway) so I didn't have any pick-ups at the centre until the bottom of the zipper ended. If you want pick-ups all the way to the top of the skirt, I would suggest using an elastic waistband instead. 

I hope this helps! 

Too many projects! Is there really such a thing?

I know, I know, I never think about how much I've already got on my plate... but when there's a RTW contest on PR, and there's a dress that I've wanted to make since 2009.... well, how could I resist?

So this is the dress

It's from Gossip Girl of course, and first aired in series 2 back in 2009. I'm a big fan of the show - pretty people, beautiful wardrobe and oh the drama! what's not to like? 

So this is my inspiration dress... and it's quite a challenge! 

The contest is in April which means that I'm not allowed to start sewing until 1 April but I can think about it all I want and buy the fabric. 

So I went to shepherds bush again and bought some (by which I mean 5 metres of) green taffeta.

My plan is to alter the bodice a little to more of a sweetheart neckline which I think will be more flattering for my figure, and make a huge pick-up skirt with a bubble hem that is a little less dramatic than the inspiration dress just so I have some occasions where I can wear it without being stared at! I'm planning on adding some netting between the skirt lining and fashion fabric to give the body... Hopefully this will work! I'm still trying to figure out where/how the zipper would work amongst all that volume... so if you have any good ideas/comments please do let me know! 

When I was at shepherds bush, I also saw this fabric and fell in love.... well I guess it doesn't hurt to show it off a little here before I turn it into something that I can wear!

I'm sure you're all wondering... hmmm I wonder what can be made out of this? well guess what? I received 9 patterns today in the post - it felt like xmas! and the best thing is, another few are coming in the post later on! obviously there was a sale and I took advantage of that! 

I thought I could use the paisley coral fabric for this pattern and it would make a very cute little dress. 

My other favourite patterns received today were:

How fabulous! I can't wait to start them!

However (a big however in fact), is that I need to try and complete my wedding dress first! At the moment I'm doing a lot of handsewing - mainly catchstithing all the seam allowances on ALL layers! 

I also had a go at the mock-up version of the lace-up back, using different types of shop purchased loops, and I think the result is clear - I'll let you judge first!

 

 As you can see, one side is made of a shiny looking cord thing (I don't know how else to describe it!) and the other more experimental - I think the shiny side is the way to go! 

I then tried the previous corselette mock-up on:

 

So the top one was loosely laced up, and the bottom one really tightly (I could just about breathe!) The whole point of this exercise really was to assess how much of a gap I want, and where to stitch the loops into the back of the dress. 

My thoughts were:

• I liked the width and shape of the loosely tied picture so that means that I'll have to leave an even bigger gap;
• The lace up looks a little soft, so I'm going to maybe insert boning near the edge of the lace up;
• The bottom picture shows that the loops are being pulled quite a lot so I'm going to leave less of the loops out of the seams. 

I'm going to unpick the loops now and make a set of new ones using the shiny cord and maybe instead of sewing it on a piece of paper, attaching them to a strip of organza selvage for some extra strength in case of too much stress! The last thing I want is for the loops to come out on my wedding day! 

I will also need to make the loops for the actual ribbon but I'm going to worry about that later! 

Update - Sunday 18 March

This weekend was packed of wedding stuff! my lovely bridesmaid came round to help me with the dress, made buttonholes and I had my hair trial. Was also going to have a trial photoshoot done too but that had to be postponed as the photographer had some family things to attend to. 

So here are some photos:

 Look at that train! 


 As you can see, I haven't quite done the lace-up back yet... I have taken the side seams in by 5mm or so on each side so the side seams would align with the side of my body better (if that makes any sense at all!). Before I start messing with the lace-up back, I am going to try it out on one of the mock-up corselettes from before so I have a better idea of the shape and size of the 'V' gap at the back. 


I'm also tempted to include a bit more details at the back of the dress. After all, this is where people will spend lots of time looking at during the ceremony! Currently I'm thinking about a pretty bow which could cover the bottom of the lace-up (and the short zipper underneath that) and help with the bustle... but I'll worry about these details later! 

My tasks for the next couple of weeks include (of course I like my lists... I'm a tax accountant after all ;) ):

• Start hand finishing seams of all layers - overcasting and catchstitching...
• Practise lace-up back on bodice mock-up
• Possibly hand basting some of the pleats to keep them in place;
• Hand basting all layers together (oh yes, we decided that I'm keeping the lining layer too... so that makes it 7 layers altogether! but they are surprisingly not that bulky, phew)
• Machine attach all layers but corselette lining whilst minding the pleats
• Attach the corselette lining layer to the above and flip - and hope for the very best!
• Finish the diagonal drape line
• Insert lace-up back
• Make up another list for the following weeks!

So quite a lot to do really! better crack on, especially as I would quite like to enter the PR April contest - RTW... more on that to follow I'm sure ;)

Pleats finished

After some intensive sewing/pinning sessions this week, I've finished the pleats on both sides and here're a couple of photos of me holding up the outer layer (well... now it consists of 4 layers!) when wearing the foundation.

 

Some important decisions were made - for the right hand side (left on photos), I did a small section only which is the bit that is shown to minimise bulk. Here're some photos but I ended up cutting the section even smaller:

So I used the same pattern as that for the larger drape, but only used a small part of it. Then I stretched out the tissue paper and cut the dupion. I pleated it a thousand times to make sure that I'm happy with the shape, and hand basted it before using the dupion as a guide to cut the organza for underlining. 

  

Now I can finally see the finish line! There are quite a few more decisions to make as yet, eg how to finish off the skirt overlay, whether to include my silk habotai lining at all (I have 6 layers already...do I really NEED it?), whether to have a separate closure for the corselette... decisions decisions! I'm sure I'll keep you posted with what happens! 

Pleats

I had a day off today so started working on the pleats. Here's what I've ended up with:

I'm using the foundation layer as my base as the cotton and the dress net are more durable, and can withstand a lot of pinning! So I have now basted the one side (as above) of the front drape, and cut out some organza to underline the piece (with pleats on the dupion layer only, and organza flat). 

In case anyone is interested, I started off with this:

So I used a large piece of tissue paper to try out the desired effects. With the front drape detail of the LBD-simplicity 2251 dress, I found this a lot less daunting so I could vizualise the whole thing better. 


With lots of pins in, and once I was happy with what I saw, I cut off the excess paper and marked the tissue paper with key things. 

And then... well, I decided that I wanted the one-sided skirt to go the other way round! Only if I thought of this properly before I started pleating the tissue paper. Anyway, this small crisis was easily solved by using the wrong side of the tissue paper as my pattern. 

After I told myself about 10 times that 'it's just fabric', I finally had the courage to cut into the beautiful dupion. I cut it on the bias as I think this would benefit the drape. I left a lot of excess on all sides (and this explains why the front skirt doesn't look perfect yet) just in case! 

Then I started pleating with the dupion on the dress form. It was relatively simple, just needed a bit of patience. After trial and error, I was finally happy with the result so I pinned everything to keep the pleats in place and to mark the stitching lines. 

Following my questions re how to underline this on Pattern Review, I decided to go with the method of not pleating the organza. So after I basted the pleats in place, I used the resulting dupion piece as a guide to cut out the organza for the underlining. and the hand basting begins... (and yet to be finished).

Now I'm getting really impatient! As I can see how this will all come together and what the finished product will be like, I just can't wait to make it happen!