1870´s Wrapper dress sew-along Part 5 (Hem)

It´s time to finish the dress and to close the center front. But first, mark all lines for flounces and appliques along the hemline on the right fabric side, mark half, quarter and eighth to match the marks on the flounce.

To close the center front below the button tab, place the left side on top, overlapping the right side. Baste along the left front edge from the right fabric side through all layers (pins), starting at the end of the button tab, ending at the hem. Turn the dress to the wrong side.

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1870´s Wrapper dress sew-along Part 4 (Sleeves)

This time I´ll show you how to sew the cuffs and make a piped armhole.

Take the cuffs and Flatline with cotton fabric. I already prepared the bias binding with a bias tape maker, you can buy them in different widths, I used the 12mm from Clover.

Open out the bias binding; with the right sides together, line up with the top edge of the cuff and pin in place, clip at corners to get some extra width. Sew along the crease of the bias binding and fold the bias binding over to the wrong side of the cuff. Fell stitch in place along the stitching line and press.

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1870´s Wrapper dress sew-along Part 3 (Collar)

It´s time to prepare the collar! The collar is piped along the outside edges, the width of the piping is about 3mm. To achieve a regular piping, take a bias strip, about 3cm wide, and fold in half all the way along, wrong sides together, and press. Baste all the way along the folded edge with an even spacing of 3mm to mark your sewing line.

Mark the stitching line on the right side of the outer collar. As you can see, it was a bit of try and error to mark the correct line.

Place the collar piping on top, with the folded edge towards the collar, lining up the stitching lines. Clip the piping at the corners to give some extra width and baste along the stitching line through all layers. The basting stitches seen on the wrong side of the collar indicates the stitching line.

Line up inner and outer collar, right sides together, and sew just next to the basting threads, indicating your stitching line, with the outer collar up.

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1870´s Wrapper dress sew-along Part 2

Today let´s start with sewing! The fabric from stock is a lightweight wool with a very small diamond pattern, flatlined with a lightweight cotton fabric.

The front pattern with it´s two darts is quite a large pattern piece. With modern fabrics you can cut the whole thing in one, the extant dress is pieced to be cut from a fabric with a width of about 90cm.

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