Author Archives: Rotraut

Patch pocket for a bustle dress

In this tutorial, I want to show you, how to sew a patch pocket for a Victorian bustle dress. You can see these pockets on several extant dresses, house dresses, as well as walking dresses, and of course on fashion plates. But what were these pockets for? Years ago, when I started my sewing pattern business I thought to hold a parasol. But that seems to be wrong. They maybe were meant to hold a handkerchief, a fan or just for decoration, as there are now visible signs of wear inside and outside the pockets on extant dresses. Visit this great article for more details. https://brokecostumer.blogspot.com/2016/02/that-mysterious-pocket.html?fbclid=IwAR1jeTo3wuViCpFIlyFCTMpjn-ph8oKwpQ2yoI_BS6Pv1xu1iKfA3_HBPdA

Draft the pattern on a piece of paper, ad seam allowance just at the sides.

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Cut from upper fabric and lining. The two layers will be treated as one. Lower the tension of your upper thread and sew with a long running stitch along the horizontal lines and along the top and bottom edges. Shirr fabric, at the bottom from 20cm to 12cm, at the top from 32cm to 24cm, and along the horizontal stitching too.
I decided to add a lace trim before shirring the fabric.

Cut a strip of fabric on the straight grain, fold like you would fold a bias tape, and cut to parts with a length of 15cm, 19cm, 23cm and 27cm. I added more trimmings first.
Open your folded strips of fabric and pin them in place. Sew along the fold line. Fold your strip again and sew the open edge with invisible stitches to the pocket. At the top and bottom fold the strip over the edge and sew to the back side.

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If desired trim with lace all around the edges.

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Sew pocket to your overskirt. The first edge you can do with your sewing machine, the bottom, and the second side sew by hand.

 

How to make a piping tape

Making a piping tape is easy. You can make it out of nearly any fabric and color desired for your project. Depending on the diameter and rigidity of the cord you become piping tapes for different uses.
Take a stripe of fabric on the bias, about 4cm wide. Lay your cord on top of the left side and fold it. Pin the cord in place and sew with the zipper foot tightly along the cord. Ready!

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Thread bar

A nearly invisible way to close a garment is to use a thread bar instead of a metal eyelet.

Double up your thread, begin from the back to hide the knot, make a stitch in the desired width of your bar. Repeat till you have four threads, loose the threads a little bit to get a nice result.
Overcast the threads with a narrow buttonhole stitch, at the end stitch through to the back side and secure your thread with some stitches.

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How to line a hem

To achieve the perfect shape for your vintage skirt more support than just flatlining the skirt with cotton fabric is needed, especially the hem line needs additional structure. Depending on the choosed fabrics and materials the skirt will be washable or not.
In extant dresses often buckram is used, not only to reinforce the hemline, sometimes every  single skirt panel was interfaced throughout to achieve the desired shape. Buckram is still available, but can not be washed. When I made this skirt, I decided to use a washable and light weight hair canvas from polyester fibers.

After cutting all pattern pieces from fashion and lining fabric (and of course a fitting with the panels basted together to determine the hemline), prepare the hem interfacing the following way: Take your pattern pieces (with all adjustments transferred) and mark the seamline. Draw another line circa 8″ (20cm) parallel to the seamline. Cut out this 8″ (20cm) wide hem-shaped strips and transfer to your stiffening fabric. For a hemline of several meters , you´ll needed to piece the strips, joining them with a simple overlapping seam (don´t forget to add seam allowance)
Place the skirt lining on top of a table with the wrong side up, and mark the hem line. Line up the interfacing with this line.

Sew the interfacing to the lining along both edges, circa 3/8″ (1cm) parallel from the edge. Turn the the hem allowance around the edge of the interfacing and stitch down the hem.

Next step is to flatline the fashion fabric: line up fashion fabric and lining, wrong sides together, and baste the two layers together inside the seam allowance. From her on treat the two layers as one and sew together the skirt as usual.

To finish the seam, turn the seam allowance of the fashion fabric around the edge of the lining towards the gament inside and fell or catch stitch to the lining. Cover the raw edge with a twill or a velvet tape.