Tag: Simplicity 3737

Half a petticoat

Simplicity 3737 petticoat

I’ve been trying to make this petticoat since March, but it was causing me to swear so terribly that it’s been shoved in a carrier bag underneath my sewing table for seven months. This is in fact only half a petticoat. There’s supposed to be a second layer on the bottom two tiers, but I absolutely couldn’t face doing all the gathering again, so I left it out.

As it happens it’s pretty much as full as I’d want it to be underneath a circle skirt (I’m going for “fullness” not “panto”), and several people on the Pattern Review site confessed that they’d either left out or chopped off the second layer.

I’m not completely convinced that I  actually like it. I’ll have to wait, and decide after I’ve worn it a few times.

Mind you, it doesn’t really matter whether I like it or not – I’m absolutely not going to make another one, so I’m sticking with this!

Cherry Skirt

Cherry circle skirt

I’m a little bit poorly this week, and the medication I’m taking is leaving me unable to concentrate, so I spent the day yesterday making a very simple skirt.

It’s made in the same way as my Elasticated Skirt but instead of being an a-line shape, this one’s a full circle. What looks like the waistband is actually a matching sash belt – the waist is made from my usual frilly elastic. There are nice deep pockets hidden away in the side seams, and that’s five metres of lacy trim sewn on at the hem.

I’m also still making Simplicity 3737, a petticoat that I started working on in March. Unfortunately it hasn’t spent the past eight months in storage magically sewing itself together, so I’m going to have to get on and finish it. If you hear swearing, it’s just me. Drowning under fourteen metres of net. Ugh.

Progress on the petticoat.

Petticoat - in progress.

This is Simplicity 3737 (now out of print), view B. You’re looking at the bottom tier of the inside layer – which itself is two layers of dress net/crinoline, edged with satin bias tape.

I still have to make the outer layer, and attach it all to the yoke.

So far I’ve been working on this for three days, and the biggest difficulty I’m having is the amount of space it takes up! 

I’m perilously close to losing my temper with this, so I think its time to pack it away and work on something else for a while.

Having a little look at the internet.

For the past two days I have been wrestling with fourteen metres of dress net and fifty metres of bias tape.

I’m hoping that these ingredients will eventually turn into this Simplicity petticoat. (Bottom right.) So far I’ve cut out all forty-two pieces, and stitched them into the appropriate tiers. Now I need to do all the gathering, and sew all of the tiers together.

I am beginning to understand why petticoats are so expensive, and also wishing that I’d just bitten the bullet and bought one in the first place. Petticoat Perfection do one which would have been absolutely ideal.

The cartoon is by Dave Walker at We Blog Cartoons. I have a print out of this pinned to my noticeboard, where I can see it every time I think I will just go and have a little look at the internet…