When my daughter saw this dress on Christmas morning, she was smitten. Hooray! She wore it all day, spilled all sorts of things on it, took it off for bath time, and then asked if she could wear it to bed! Naturally I said no, gave it a quick wash and put it to dry for the next day.
When she put it on the next morning, I was horrified to see the waist seam was parting. Agh! I whipped it straight off her, poor bereft little lass, for an assessment of the problem. Of course I had to rip out all my lovely whip stitches (attaching the bodice lining over the top of the skirt) to see the problem. The stitches appeared to have popped in about four different places across the seam. How could this happen?! All those prettily and carefully arranged gathers, unravelling, with no gathering threads remaining to regather them! I threw in some quick basting to hold things in place, then I pretty much threw the dress down in despair. After a few choice words. Loudly.
Several cups of restorative tea later, I was able to reassess. I think that because the skirt was slightly too long (because I made to her measurements, but couldn't try it on her before it was hemmed), she stepped on it and it failed at the weakest point. It's rather a shame that wasn't the yoke/bodice seam, which would be a darn sight easier to repair.
Ho hum. Back to the machine. New needle, tiny stitch, three rows of stitching across each side of the skirt (it was easier by far to sew the seam in two sections rather than try to sew around that v, where the bodice was determined to slide under the needle at.every.stitch. Gah.) And more whip stitching to reattach the lining.
Then a new hem. This time I followed the directions of whip stitching the hem, and was rather surprised to find it showed a lot less than my original hem. You live and learn!
And with luck those will be the last repairs to the Elsa dress for a while, as I now have my sights set on an 1810 bib front regency day dress. What, you say, a full-size garment of historical nature from sketchy directions?
Why yes! I'm an experienced dressmaker now, I even know what notches on patterns are for! Heehee.
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