I’m going to jump right in today and tell you I made quite a few changes to this pattern. Here’s the original, with my modifications:
Look at all that red! These are places where I changed the cutting line or seam line. The first thing that needed adjusting was the angle of the shoulder seam. And once I’d done that, I needed to move the armhole forward a bit. If this sounds complicated (I can almost hear the hyperventilating from here) let me explain in detail, one piece at a time.
The front is placed on a fold to cut. The side seam is fine as is. The lower edge (without the pleated ruffle) is the cutting line I used. It’s meant to have a seam allowanced added, but I felt the slip was too long this way so I left it off. This is why I removed the 1/4″ already-added seam allowance from the back piece – to make them match. So the cutting line for the lower front edge is just as shown, and for the back it’s on the dotted line, which removes the red area below.
If you look closely, you’ll also notice green dotted lines around the neckline, shoulder, and armholes (including the side piece). These green lines are NOT cutting lines. These are the adjusted seam lines. I added 1/4″ beyond the green dotted lines to create an allowance for joining the front and back at the shoulders, and for a 1/8″ plus 1/8″ narrow hem at the armholes and neckline.
For the back ruffle, you can see I redrew the end to match the curve of the piece it’s going to get sewn to. So you basically just cut that red area right off. Stretch that piece out 4 1/4″ from the dot at the top, then place its center back edge on a fold to cut. The resulting piece will be 8 1/2″ between the dots and have a curved seam at each end. Note: The drawing of the slip is a bit vague, but this ruffle isn’t the same pleated one shown at the bottom of the front pattern piece. This ruffle becomes part of the back, and gets joined into the side seam. The original instructions advise a 13 1/2″ length. This seemed much too “ruffly” to me (which is why I shortened it), but you may feel differently.
One last thing I changed is the center back. The slip is waaaay too large! I recommend cutting on the given cutting line, but turning each side under 1/4″ plus a second 1/4″ and then matching the new center back lines I drew when you overlap them.
Hopefully this covers everything. I added 3″ guide lines so you can right click, paste, and print this the correct size if you’d like to try making it yourself.
Once you get the pieces embroidered and then cut, putting this together is easy (seam allowances are all 1/4″).
- Join the shoulder seams, and the front to the side pieces.
- Hem the center back edges, then overlap them and baste them together at the bottom.
- Gather the ruffle and stitch to the bottom of the upper back. I left 1/2″ from the side seams of the ruffle (i.e., 3/4″ from the curved cut edges) free from gathers. This makes it lay nicer.
- Join the back to the sides.
- Narrow hem the armholes and the neckline (1/8″ plus 1/8″). UPDATE: After trying unsuccessfully to narrow hem the armholes, I created some tiny bias pieces to bind them and the neckline instead. Not what was called for, but definitely results in a nicer finish.
- Narrow hem the lower slip edge (1/4″ plus 1/4″).
- Add a ruffle or lace edging to the bottom edge.
Voila! It really is a pretty little slip, and well worth the effort it took to get the fit right.
To follow along with the rest of Celeste’s lingerie trousseau project, click HERE.
To see the gallery photos of her completed lingerie trousseau, click HERE.
And to see all of her current wardrobe projects, click HERE.