Front Meets Back and Other Pretty Things…

Having survived the drama associated with my center back placket (see the Tale of Two Backs), work continued with getting the Front and Back together on my princess slip # 0336 for the 1912 sewing project.  I was looking forward to this part in the process because the results were yielding a wearable garment.

The shoulder seams were stitched and the edges on the neckline were turned under and catch-stitched down.  I used a 5/8” wide eyelet trim with 1/8'” satin ribbon woven into it.  The trim was pinned in place and machined stitched down doing the edge furthest from the neckline first.  I then worked the corners of the front and back so that the eyelet would lay properly and not catch the ribbon when the neck edge was stitched down.  Some other participants mitered their corners but I found this wasn’t necessary by pinning out the excess fabric.

The pattern calls for placing 1 1/2” gathered lace at the neckline but I found that to be to “Fru-Fruie” for my taste and instead purchased a 1 1/2” wide satin ribbon that was folded and gathered with two rows of basting stitches.  I doubled the measurement of the neckline for the ribbon, marked the center, turned under the raw edges prior to running my basting stitches.  I matched the center of the ribbon to the center front and matched the edges to the finished placket edges and distributed the gathers evenly.  You really need to take your time during this process so you don’t accidentally break your basting.  It takes a while but is all worth the time expended in the looks of the final garment.  Here I hand stitched the ribbon to the neckline edge and then covered the raw edge with 1/4” satin ribbon which I also hand stitched down.  Below are photos of this process.

 

Here is the finished results at the neckline showing the gathered ribbon, eyelet trim and the added embroidery.

 

The finished back.  The final button was stitched on as well as hooks and eyes to keep the top closed. 
Just beautiful!!!

The side seams were then stitched and pressed open.  The raw edge of the armhole was finished with a 1/4” double-fold bias binding.  Here the armhole called for 1 1/2” gathered lace but I was not fond of that idea either.  I found a lovely 1 1/2'” flat, lace.  Even though the lace was not intended to have ribbon woven through it I wove the 1/8” satin ribbon through it and hand stitched it to the armhole.

 

Final armhole results.

 

Me oh my….I have a wearable garment and can see the light at the end of the tunnel on this project.

Up next….the flounce!

Happy Sewing…