Hello hello! Today, we're taking it outside for a beautiful day sewing in the sun!
What is summer without at least one DIY picnic look? So today's sewing machine and
5 meters of pretty fabric are gathering in the name of this Cecilie Bahnsen dress
It's playful the proportions feel really youthful and we get to show off a lot of great sewing techniques like making ties,
attaching a lining, gathering for days,
slash and spread and yes, sorry who am I kidding?
I'm indoors away from bugs in my home clothes not getting a sunburn but since the world is not in a great place right now
this is the fantasy that I need to keep it together. As you were, Picnic Wendy
We're gonna tackle the hardest part first, which is fitting the bodice
My assistant Julia helped me draft a pattern piece for the front which has a narrower shoulder than usual and an extra-large armhole
This is all to create that kind of like toddler
childish small chest area effect that you see on the Cecilie Bahnsen dress
There's a dart here that I might have to add but we're gonna see how it all lands later
And here is the back pattern again with the narrower shoulders and large armhole
I cut both of these out on a folded fabric to get a symmetrical front and a symmetrical back
These are the bodice pieces that I drafted for myself from a class on couture, l know I've mentioned these many times cuz they're
Golden, they've held me through so much!
Front, back and this is what I meant when I said a narrower shoulder and then a
larger armhole. The extra length at the bottom is not necessary. But because I'm not quite sure where the waist is gonna land
It's just always good to give yourself a little bit of room to work with
The back needs to be cut open
Down the middle so that you can get in and out of this dress and we're going to sew the front and the back
Right sides together at the shoulders and also at the sides
If like me your fabric is slightly sheer you can make an identical bodice lining and next up
I cut these long four centimeter wide strips
I chopped it into four pieces. These you can sew right sides together to form four ribbons
If you want a hack you add a string before
Sewing it shut so that you can pull on the string to easily flip it inside out
Easily...
Flip it... inside...
Oh, gosh, I'm out of practice. Okay, you need to tie a knot you need to trim the excess fabric and then yes
Okay, nice and easy
The ribbons go on the back opening like so and the lining gives it all a hug
This just needs two straight stitches down the back to lock in the ribbons
And then you should also flip it open so that you can understitch the raw edge to the lining to make sure it stays hidden
Time for the sleeves
These are the measurements that I started with and you can check the blog post linked in the description on how to calculate the size you need
Honestly, I could have made them bigger, but I was worried about running out of fabric
So we're gonna bring these right sides together to seal the straight edge into a tube
And then I also add two parallel stitches along the long curve
You've seen me do this technique many times, but this is how I gather up all of my fabric
Not only have I done this gathering technique a lot on my channel
This was the third time I've used this gathering technique on a Cecilie Bahnsen-inspired
outfit. I had first made this Christmas dress out of this super pretty thick satin fabric with these crazy flowers on it
She is gathered like nuts and also a bit of that like
toddler cut too and then last winter if you've been subscribed for that long, you saw this wrap coat. It was made completely from a
blanket that I thrifted at Value Village
Also heavily
gathered here to create the poofy shape at the waist
So after this, I will just be one garment away from wearing Cecilie Bahnsen all year round! The new dress
I guess can stand in for spring and summer for now
and uh
If there's one more Cecilie Bahnsen outfit you want me to make to really complete this four seasons
Vivaldi concerto let me know.
I don't like this gap of fabric here by the armpit. It just feels bulky
So I reshaped the armhole to let it cut deeper into my chest area
Everything gets re-pinned back together and here. Yes, hopefully you can see why this is a fit that I prefer
Before
After
Before
After
Also, it doesn't look like I will need the chest darts because I don't see any weird lumps
So I'm just going to skip ahead and attach the sleeves. This is the pin situation that I've been delicately sticking my arms through
It's not scary at all
We're just going to sew these sleeves on by going all the way around the armhole with a straight stitch
On the original the sleeves are closed off with two cute little cuffs
So here are the rectangles that I cut and I'm sewing them right sides together
Along the short edge to form a tube
The sleeve seemed to also be elbow length
So I did shorten the ends and then using the same two parallel stitches gathering technique on the ends of the sleeves. I
Gathered them all up and then pinned the cuffs so that the fabric is distributed evenly
Sew all of that right sides together with a straight stitch and you've got yourself two cute little cuffs
Now that the shoulders and the sleeves are all locked into position
This is where I finally feel comfortable shortening at the top
You just don't really know how the fabric is gonna hang on you until you get to this step
So I added these pins while wearing it and then folded it down the line of symmetry so that I could give it a crop
We're going for an unconventional
Scalloped waistline. So just cut and then repeat to yourself: "I'm not scared. I'm not scared
I'm not scared."
Okay, we did it
Measure those
Beautiful arches that you just created and make sure you multiply that by at least four to get the circumference of the skirt. I
Calculated that I wanted a three meter circumference skirt and that left me with one extra meter
So I just said why not and went for a whole four meter skirt. Oh my gosh
I'm so excited for the volume
If you have any practice making snowflake chains or little children holding hands out of folding paper
this will be just like that, but with a way more legit pair of scissors and
Only one long arching cut mine started out about 60 centimetres tall and ended around 53 centimeters
I gathered every single arch and pinned it right sides together to the top
The goal is to match the top and the skirt at little peaks and valleys of the arches
It might be easier if I put it on. Okay see here
Matching up the little peaks and the little valleys if everything looks good
We're gonna sew the back of the skirt right sides together
Which will cover your butt and then we're gonna sew the skirt to the top all along the arches right sides together
Here's how it looked after my first stab and I really didn't feel like my arches committed enough
So I'm gonna do another stitch that deep into the arches
This is where this current stitches and up here is where I'd like the next one
Maybe like a centimeter in you might have to give your skirt a trim to level out the bottom
But just be careful
You don't want some haircut situation where you keep trying to balance the left and the right and then you end up losing
Many many key inches after trimming the bottom can be hemmed by just turning the edge in two times and sewing a straight stitch
We're gonna finish off with one more little pattern drafting technique a good old
slash and spread or in this case slash and shrink
This strip is the current circumference of the dresses neck hole and I'm taping all of these little slits shut by about
86% so that it can form a slightly standing mock neck pattern
I needed 44 centimeters on the outside and 38 centimeters on the inside. Yep
Looks close enough this needs to be cut with seam allowance out of two layers of fabric and sewn right sides together
except sorry one last thing I
decided to cut these two little rectangles fold them shut and sew into two tiny ribbons and
These need to be sandwiched between the collar layers so that they can become a cute little button closure after
Flipping the collar right side up and sewing it to the neck hole. It is time to try on your picnic outfit
Here is the original inspo
I'm pretty sure this the third Cecilie Bahnsen item I've made and here is how it looks after
So I get outside. Oh
[Music]
Wait
Did you record or un-record?
I don't know
[Music}
*Yawn*
What a weird dream if you want to see more pictures of this dress
I'll put them all up on my Instagram @withwendy
And if you got all the way here, don't forget to subscribe hit the bell notification and we'll see you on the next video
Bye. Bye