As I neared the final few stitches attaching the skirt to the bodice of Maddie’s slip, an awful truth dawned. Something was very wrong. The skirt didn’t so much hang in beautiful folds from the band as stick out in uneven waves. When I pushed down one side, the back popped out. When I pushed the back into place, the front sprung up.
Boing!
Boing!
Boing!
There was no way around it – I had way too much skirt and only one option. It had to come off and get smaller.
I plead the Fifth on how I spent my evening after this decision was made.
This morning I set to work undoing a lot of things. Because one can’t just cut several inches out of an otherwise finished skirt without tying off all the rows of stitching that the scissors will set free.
The process went thusly:
- Mark off cutting points two inches to each side of the center back seam.
- Snip the thread of the first tuck on the left side.
- Pick back my careful hand stitching, one stitch at a time, until I reach the marked point.
- Thread the needle with this tiny bit of thread.
- Pull the thread to the back and tie off.
- Run the end between the layers of the tuck to hide it and snip.
- Repeat steps 2-6 for the remaining seven tucks.
- Study pulled thread hem and wonder how picking it back is possible, since the stitches are each wrapped twice around a tiny group of three threads.
- Say several bad words.
- Get more coffee.
- Dig out magnifiers.
- Start picking.
- Break thread.
- Say several more bad words.
- Look at the clock to see if it’s too early for wine.
- Sigh because it’s not even noon yet.
- Get back to picking and finally figure out a painstakingly slow way to get the threads untangled from each other.
- Remove spider-web thin threads holding lace on and repeat steps 5-6.
- Repeat ALL above steps for the right side.
Then, and only then, was I able to press the top edge, cut out five inches from the center back, and put three new rows of gathering threads in.
Thankfully, doll costuming isn’t a race to the finish line. Slow and steady, and all that other stuff about patience and virtue and quality over quantity, blah blah blah. . . . .
To see all the posts for this project so far, click HERE.
To see other projects from Maddie’s wardrobe, click HERE.