Sewing mini dresses to go with my bloomers

I love bloomers, short pants (or shorts) with ruffled hems.  In the last couple of years, I have sewn myself several pairs of bloomers (including my black corduroy pair below), and I have noticed that I like to wear them mostly with my longest shirts or my shortest dresses so that the ruffles peak out the bottom.  Unfortunately, I own very few mini dresses, so I decided to make some.  I started with my oldest, dearest mini-dress, and since it fits me so well, I used it to draft myself a set of pattern pieces.  I updated the design by making it a both longer and fuller in the back than in the front.  I also updated the fabric choice from a tiny flower print to pre-ruffled fabric on top and slinky rayon on the bottom.  Both fabrics are 5% spandex to make them nice and stretchy. 

The first one I made turned out a wee bit too small for me, so I enlarged the pattern by a couple inches here and there, and made two more in just my size.  Why two?  So I could sell one and keep one for myself.  I planned to keep the crappy one and sell the other, but I am happy to report that they both came out equally well.  Here you can see me in the purple one.  It's so comfy and I'm thrilled with the fit.

The purple on is a size medium, and the green one is a size small.  Notice the extra seaming in the back to add shaping around the waist and fullness in the hem.

The hard part about sewing these dresses was working with the ruffled fabric.  If you're not really careful, you'll get wonky ruffles caught in the seams when you sew them.  From previous projects (bloomers!) I learned that the best way to control the ruffles is to baste them down so they don't move before you get the seams sewn properly.  I did a ton of basting on these, every seam with ruffles was basted before I pinned it (or basted it) to be serged.  In the past, I used my sewing machine to do the basting, but on these I did them all by hand.  It takes a bit more time, but I got MUCH better results.  In three dresses, I didn't get a single flipped ruffle, which is nice.

These two tops are also different in the hem treatments.  The purple has a ruffled lettuce edge, and the green one has a folded hem with cover stitch.  I'm really not sure which one I like better.  What do you think?

Clicking on the photos will take you to their Etsy listings.

Finally my own bloomers design

I've been working on making up my own pattern for bloomers with ruffles.  I had tried making a few other pairs that I discussed earlier, but I didn't like the gathering at the knee and the bow tie in the back.  Tying my pants up behind my back is a little fiddly, so I decided to try other options.

This pair above is made from a wonderful blue black hand dyed cotton I bought during my quilting days.  I designed a wide leg cropped pant, decorated with two rows of double edged ruffles and no gathering at the knee.  The ruffles are hemmed on both edges.  (That's a lot of hemming!)  These have an elastic waistband which makes them much easier to take on and off than a bow in the back.  Super comfy, too, but they're a bit big on me, so I've listed them for sale.  I also added some pockets with piping on the edge because I can't successfully leave the house without pockets in my pants.

The problem with an elastic waistband is you still need extra fabric in the waist to get them over your hips.  You can remove the extra fabric by adding a zipper instead, but up until this week, I didn't know how to sew a zipper.   For MONTHS, I've been trying to learn how to set a zipper.  I keep reading instructions, but hadn't actually tried to do it. Finally,  I decided that if I started with a lapped zipper, I could sew anything.  So, I found a pattern for a lapped zipper, and after following the pattern with some scrap cotton, I found that the pattern didn't produce a very stylish result.  I found at least three errors.  So I spent a full day designing my own pattern off of the faulty one, until I got everything to line up properly.  It took my 5 iterations to get it just right and ready for use.  Since the green fabric isn't stretchy at all, I also decided to add a bit of elastic in the back of the waistband.  For this reason, my sister dubbed them "buffet pants." 

The green pair of bloomers include the lapped zipper, back darts, ruffles, and two front pockets with piping.  I also added a little tag with my name and the fiber content because it's the law if you want to sell clothing that it be labeled with fiber content.  Who knew?  I'm thrilled with the workmanship on this pair.  The details are very nearly perfect.   But, they're still a little big on me, so I'm selling them in anticipation of making myself a perfectly fitting pair.

Simplicity Pattern 2777

I made myself a new pair of bloomers from the Simplicity Pattern 2777 by Archivestry. These are the mid-length version in size 10. Since I have an overflowing stash of cotton quilting fabrics left over from my days as a quilter, I delved into it for my first try at a Simplicity pattern since I was in college. There's nothing easier to sew with than cotton quilting fabric, so I thought it a good place to start. Most of the pieces I have are small cuts, often under a quarter yard, so I had to mix and match pieces to get enough for the whole project. I ended up combining 6 different fabrics including leafy green and off white for the main panels. The lightest one has feather plumes and the tan one has bumble bees. The hems are trimmed with a golden brown cork print and burnt orange ruffles with dandilion seeds flying in the wind. Then I died the rayon lace at the hems to match the ruffle and the greens.

The pants sit low rise, and there's a long ribbon that ties in the back. They're very comfortable and fit just as I hoped.

I'm going to make the next pair longer and in orange silk. You can see the orange fabric I'm going to use in the background of this photo. Click on it to make it big.

What I learned: This was a very easy pattern, and I finally learned how to make a waistband. I learned that when gathering fabric to make a ruffle, use two parallel lines of basting stitches. It's much easier to control the distribution of the gathering because you have more friction with two threads than with one. It also helps the fabric lie flatter at the gathers, so sewing the ruffle to the hem is easier. I learned that these pants fit me great, and I can't wait to make another pair.