Weekend Goals

It's the weekend, and I have goals.

1. I finished knitting the second sleeve of the red shell to go with the cabled sweater I made earlier this year. I'd like to get that made up this weekend.
2. I finished the cross-stitching and started the outlining on my daughter's Christmas stocking. I'd like to get that finished this weekend and sew up the stocking.
3. A couple of weeks ago when it was nice out, we started putting together a rack to go over the garage door. Then it got hot again. This weekend is supposed to be in the 80's so I'd like to get it finished.
4. Now that the knitting is finished on the red sweater, it's time to start the 1901 bicycling sweater. I cast on a swatch last night and would like to finish that, decide which needles I want, and cast it on.
5. I've been working on a birthday present for my daughter. She'll be gone all day Saturday at a marching contest so I'm hoping to get about another quarter of it finished.

I don't know that I'll do all that because I also have errands to run and a house to have ready for company next week and more trim in the living room that I want to paint.

If by any chance I get through all of the work and the stated goals, it would be great to start the Christmas stocking for my second daughter.

Eloise Waist

I got asked a question today about setting the waist on the Eloise dress by Wearing History. I think it's something that maybe more than one person would be interested in so I'm posting how I did it here.

The dress has been in a box for months so it's rather wrinkled, but I hope the pictures will be helpful.

I should start by saying that I changed the waist so that the skirt opens at the left side instead of the center back. I just didn't want to trust snaps to hold a full half of the waist in place. I think it was a justifiable decision historically.

I started with a bodice finished except for the lower edge and a skirt finished except for the upper edge.

I made up an inside belt of 1.5" petersham. It closes with hooks and eyes and overlaps by as much as the left edge of the bodice extends past the center front. I cut a piece of twill tape long enough to reach from the center front to the left side seam plus a bit for overlap and hem.

Then I ran a gathering thread on the bodice close to the bottom edge and then two more rows about 2" up - where the top of the inside belt would be.

I drew up the fullness and stitched the top and bottom of the petersham belt from the end of the left bodice extension to the center front of the right side of the bodice. I overlapped the belt a bit with the twill tape and stitched the tape from the center front of the right side of the bodice to the end of the bodice - this was not the end of the tape.





That finished the bodice.

I then leveled the skirt, turning over the excess at the top. I ran two rows of gathering threads at the top. Then I drew up the fullness and lapped the skirt over the bodice, starting at the left side seam and continuing to the end of the tape extension. It is stitched near the top of the belt.





That finished the skirt.

I sewed a hook and bar for closing the end of the tape to the left side and placed snaps every couple of inches between the hooks and bars at center front and the hook at the side seam.

Yes, the gathering threads show on the outside of the skirt as well as the topstitching. It's not a super nice finish, but I'm never going to wear this without a sash or belt over it so there was no need to make it pretty.

This whole method came out of some book or books, though I don't recall where off the top of my head. I don't remember what the pattern instructions said so I can't say where I started diverging. (Or did I start diverging? I don't know, and I don't want to look it up right now.)

The same method could be used with a center back opening, you just have a lot longer piece of tape and shift the skirt accordingly. You might actually want a longer petersham in that case, but I haven't tried it so I can't speak from experience.

I hope this is useful.