I’m breaking this down to be super simple changes you can make to the Milicent Dress to create tie shoulders and a ruffle hem. First up tie shoulders
Part 1.
- Don’t cut out the straps provided in the pattern we are going to create wider longer ones.
- on a piece of paper draw a rectangle 10cm wide x 70cm
- cut x 4 out of your main fabric
- cut x 4 out of iron in interfacing
- iron interfacing onto wrong side of fabric
Part 2.
- Fold in half lengthwise
- Press
- stitch around outside edge leaving one narrow edge open
- clip corners
- turn right side out
Insert straps into garment as per regular instructions.
For the Ruffle Skirt
Part 1.
- take you skirt pattern piece, draw a line on where you want to shorten it to. I’m only 5 foot tall so my skirt was reduced to 38cm including seam allowance.
- fold or cut your main pattern piece to that length
- decide on the height of your ruffle. Again I’m short but my ruffle is a finished height of 25cm. With seam allowance and hem it is 28cm high.
- Fold your fabric right sides together, place your skirt pattern pieces
- using chalk and a ruler mark in the ruffle height, go across the full width of your fabric for extra fullness
Part 2.
- Cut out your pieces
- Assemble the top portion of your skirt (including pockets) as per the instructions in your pattern.
- Run 2 lines of gathering stitch along the top edge of each ruffle
- pull stitches to create gathers until it is the same width as the lower edge of your upper skirt
- sew side seams of ruffles, finish edges
Part 3.
- right sides together pin and then stitch ruffle to upper skirt. Remove gathering stitches
- Hem lower ruffle then proceed with remainder of pattern instructions
