The other day I started trying to get a handle on all my unfinished projects and gave up. My solution was to just finish something. Anything.

So I finished my Huret’s slip. Sorry the photo looks like a mug shot. With her kid body, it’s hard to get her to stand straight in her stand, so I just photographed her lying down.

I love how the slip makes her skirt stand out.

I have a confession.  I am really bad at measuring when I sew. When I made the BLUE-striped silk skirt, I made the waistband without measuring. I thought I remembered her waist size. Oops. It was way too big and I just pinned it to take pictures.

So when I was fitting the waistband of her slip, I stabbed myself on the pin holding her skirt on. There is a tiny spot of blood on the slip’s waistband that I couldn’t get out.

But I really needed to fix her skirt. First, I removed the waistband. Since it has piping, I had to unstitch the ends before I could cut off the excess and restitch it.

Making cartridge pleats narrower just required that I pull the ends of the gathering threads tighter to fit the smaller waistband.

I also noticed that the lining had come loose at the waist edge.  The gauzy cotton I used for the lining had unravelled at the top and drooped away from the waistline. 

I loosely gathered the lining and pushed it back up under the edge of the skirt fabric. Then I used long back stitches to hold it in place. The back stitches don’t go through to the front of the skirt.

Here’s the finished back of her nicely fitted waistband. I added a mother of pearl button and a handsewn button hole. Now I could move on to her undies.

I used a pattern from Louse Hedrick’s lovely A French Fashion Doll’s Wardrobe. She calls them “pantalets”. A much daintier name than split drawers.

The book is a must have if you sew for French Fashion dolls and is available on Amazon (even though they fired me and I don’t get a kickback if you buy from them). In it, she interprets patterns from La Poupee Modele for 18″ and 12″ fashion dolls.

Yesterday afternoon I finished one leg and just need to add the lace to the other one and sew on the waistband.  I haven’t decided yet if I will use a drawstring or buttoned waistband.

The sewing is pretty straight forward. The center seams are rolled and whipped, the leg seams are french seamed, the hem is rolled and whipped and the lace trim is whip stitched on. If you followed along with last spring’s Beginning Hand Sewing for Dolls, these are techniques that you have already learned.

I wanted her underwear to be white, so I found a piece of old tatted cotton lace that wasn’t too yellowed to trim her “pantalets”.

On Monday, I also made a skirt for me. I really don’t like machine sewing. It made me remember why I quit sewing for myself. But I already bought fabric for 2 more skirts so I’ll have to buckle down and just do it.