Sally’s Fleur Pinafore!

11th July 2020

Hi All, welcome to my 1^st Blog Post for Felicity Fabrics.

Now I had to try and keep up with the other talented ladies on our blogger team and racked my brains on what to make! You may of come across my makes in the past as I do love a good pinafore and when Britani of Untitled Thoughts realised the Fluer pinafore I had to make it!

The hard part was trying to nail down just the one fabric to use and that’s hard to do when you browse the shop as there are many beautiful fabrics on sale. After careful debating inside my head I decided to use the Mila Cotton fabric which is just as delightful on screen as it is in real life!

Since this fabric just screamed me me me! I had to pick these ever so cute buttons to go with it.

Can I just admire on how beautifully packaged my materials came in, it’s the little things like this that make receiving fabric goodies in the post that bit more special and luxurious! The little fabric card comes in hand for pre-washing instructions and to keep for later reference.

Since I had my fabric in the wash, it was a ideal time to get my PDF pattern al pieced together.

Then it was onto cutting into the good stuff! I tried my hardest to get my pattern to match the best I could and it was quite satisfying when you see it line up so well. I even had the kids assisting… well the biggest did well my youngest played with his lego!

The bibs were constructed really quickly. Also a good tip when sewing the bibs is to reinforce your stitches at the corners so when it comes to turn them right sides out you won’t end up poking straight though the end. Also, for ease of pattern matching later on in the instructions, I labelled mine with front and back so I knew which ones to use for either the front or back.

Instead of using gathering stitches to gather my skirt pieces, I used clear elastic as it I find it some easier and it gathers it neatly and evenly. So I measured the length of the waistband which was 16” and subtracted by 2” so It would gather nicely. I cut a piece of 14” long elastic and folded it in half and then pinned the middle bit in place where the middle of the waistband. I changed my stitch type to a zig zag, then you hold one end of the elastic taught when you start sewing and its easy as that!

Aren’t these buttons just totally fit the fabric for this! I was all armed ready with my stitch ripper to open up my buttonholes but then when opening up my first one the pointy bit of the ripper went under my fingernail ouch!! But then I did a bit of alfresco sewing in the garden whilst I stitched on my buttons.

I thought right, all I need to do is to hem this and it’s finished….. I thought wrong! I ended up shortening the skirt pieces too much for my liking so I had to come up with a plan to try and recoup some length! If in doubt add a ruffle!! Thankfully Caroline and Fliss had a mere 25cm left at the time as the fabric has been very popular and kindly sent that on along with my next project. You will be glad to hear that is now back in stock!

To be honest, I’ve never done a ruffle before, yes I know I am ashamed to say it!

I cut out 3 strips of fabric of 2.5” by width of the fabric which was 44”, I sewn them together using 1cm seam allowance along the short edge and finished the seams.

I hemmed my ruffle before attaching to the pinafore as it’ll be easier with the added volume from the ruffle. I used my narrow hem foot as I didn’t want to lose any more length when I add it to my pinafore.

To gather my ruffle, I used shirring elastic as it wouldn’t be bulky when sewn to my pinafore. I used a straight stitch but made it as long as it could go and sewn and sew across the top of the ruffle.

Then I sew it to my pinafore hem using a 1cm allowance, finished the seam and it gave the pinafore that extra length needed and it really brings out a cute twist to it so my accidental ‘Design Feature’ worked really well.

After my labour of love, I decided to add ‘Sewing is my Jam’ label by Kylie and the Machine as being a sewist it takes a lot of oommpp to keep going with a project when it hasn’t gone exactly to plan as I’m sure through your own sewing adventures that there is a pile of UFO (Unfinished Object) where this would have ended up on but I was adamant not to defeat me!