Making a dress - Black and Pink JSK

Inspiration

My original inspiration is from this dress from pinterest.

Unfortunately the Taobao brand Magic Tea Party no longer make this JSK so I don't have anymore pictures of this dress

But a trail through the internet and I manged to find this photo.

Well it is a start.

Design

So I decided to sketch my dress. Definitely wanted those pintucks at the front but no lacing at the back as I wanted a zip.

However just when I was happy with my design I had a change of heart and went with buttons down the front. Not sure why I did but I think when I saw the pintucks I immediately then thought I wanted the top white part to look like a shirt. Of course I didn't want to add none functioning buttons so I change the design slightly to have button.

Pattern-wise this was my starting point.

It has the basic bodice I like and the pattern fits nicely. All I need to do is convert this from an underbust JSK to an overbust one.

Seems easily enough.

Now what fabric to use. Well I have this fabric sitting around for a while and I have been meaning to use this to make a lolita dress but I always thought I would use it to make a wa-lolita dress because of the pattern resembling yukata fabric.

And I get to use up some of my trimmings that I have been collecting.

I like my trimmings to be just visible for some reason and if I sew this black trim on the very edge you will be able to see it well enough.

Construction

The main fabric is cotton with my lining being anti-static polyester lining. So cutting was pretty straightforward. Unlike the last project.

Well that is all the pieces cut.

Lets get sewing.

Getting the front panels sorted first. I thought I would be clever and use the overlocker to stitch down the thread used for gathering. Unfortunately they didn't hold as well as I thought so a little bit of fudging was needed. However they turned out nice enough.

Now I tackled the pintucks on the bodice by ironing them first and then sewing the stitching to keep them in place. Don't they look pretty.

Now to put all the bodice pieces together. First the outer fabric and then the lining.

And now we get to put the lining and main fabric bodice together. Somehow I feel I did this wrong but it looks okay so lets not worry about it shall we.

Previously I would always have trouble keeping the pocket opening from staying together so I decided this time to hand stitch them closed and then when everything is finished I can open it all up.

And now we come to the fun part. Gathering all this fabric for the skirt. There is so much to gather as I have to do it for the outer and lining fabric, thank god I don't have additional frills.

There is a lot of fabric here but slowly does it. Well I sewed as best as I could but I will tell you about them in the conclusion.

But don't worry though I got it all sewn down!

I luckily remembered to add the black trimming to the bottom of skirt before I attached it but I did forget to add the white trimming to the dress. It was suppose to go inbetween the floral and black panels. Oh great well I could not add them to the waist so that just leave one place. Down the middle along the button panel.

This seemed like a good solution but it had a slight problem, I had to sew it 5mm away from the edge because I was going to add the button panel on top. In the end I sewed the trimming down and then ironed my seam allowance on the button panel and then carefully sew it down to the edge.

Not looking bad but the finally hurdle is the buttons.

I was umming and arring about whether to do them on the machine or by hand. Machine looks more professional but I had mixed results whereas handsewing them will take a lot of time.

I ended up using the machine as sewing 14 buttonholes seems a bit too many.

Finished

Here it is!

I still have some of the floral fabric so I may make a little bolero jacket to go with it.

Conclusion

Overall it went according to plan.

In hindsight I should not have made the front ruffles as I did. There was just so much fabric there and made the front panel a bit stiff.

As always I am super critical in the finish. I can see how some seams are not sewn nicely and things are just not that neat. However I suppose this is the problem of making your own dresses.