Folkwear Dirndl

I joined a new orchestra, and a couple weeks before rehearsals started, I got an email about a volunteer opportunity to help the orchestra. We could work shifts at the Cleveland Oktoberfest, and the money we earned would go to the orchestra. So I signed up.

A couple days before my shift, I got the idea to make a dirndl to wear. I found the Folkwear costume online, got the pattern printed out at the Office Depot up the street, and started to work. 

I found everything I needed in my stash, from the fabrics—purple corduroy for the bodice, the flower lawn for the skirt, and the linen for the shirt and apron—to the 6 hooks and eyes and 1/4" boning. Boning. I had boning in my stash.

I only had a couple days, and not full days either, to work on it. But I thought I could maybe just do it.

Nope. I worked my shift in a comfy jersey superhero dress.

I spent all of one day, surely 8+ hours, and half of the next working on the f--ing bodice. I made three muslins. I tried to adjust the fit my way, but the resulting muslins were disasters. Then I tried it the way the pattern instructions suggested, and thought I had nailed it.

After making my own 1/4" bias binding, sewing it around the neckline and armseyes—one side of which was by hand for Pete's sake—gathering the skirt, and sewing on all those frigging hooks eyes, I discovered the fit of the bodice totally sucked. 

Jeez, just look a this!!! It's so maddening!!!

Before realizing the whole effort was a disaster, I had had a couple epiphanies on this project I was so proud of.

1. I sewed them hem of the skirt before I sewed the side seams. God, it was so much easier to control the fabric and get an even seam! I left enough unsewn at the sides to be able to sew up the side seams and then finish the hem.
2. I didn't want the poofy sleeves of the Folkwear patterns blouse. I wanted fitted sleeves. So I was looking through patterns and looking around my sewing room,  and then it dawned on me what I wanted was pretty close to the chemise I sewed for my Jane Austen outfit that turned into my nightgown and that then finally ended up in a bin for refashioning. I shortened it and added a ruffle along the bottom, and ta da! I had a blouse like I wanted and a petticoat.
3. I sewed the gathered skirt to 1" twill tape and then attached the twill tape to the bodice. This was brilliant, worked like a charm, and will be duplicated whenever appropriate. I got the idea when I was thinking how uncomfortable the waist felt to me when I was to wear a gathered skirt. I realized you sew right sides together and then the fabric falls back on itself, doubling the bulk at the waist. Then the twill tape occurred to me. It was a billion times easier adjusting the gathering along the length of the tape than doing it without the stability of the tape or when pinning it on the bodice. I had a nice long, straight, stable place to work instead of cramped on the inside of a round bodice. 

​​Yeah, so I don't know what I'm going to do. I could take a couple darts out of the neckline at the gussets and maybe make it wearable for my next shift at Oktoberfest. If I get time, I might try to make another bodice. At least it would be easy to take the skirt off and resew it because of my twill tape trick.

One thing I will do differently is either sew a zipper in, because why the heck not? Hooks and eyes? Sheesh. Or sew a pattern with front lacing. That way, I could have some flexibility with fitting, pulling the laces tighter if I needed it, or loosening them if I needed that. Like this:

Update 8/25/2024: I fixed it in time for this year's Oktoberfest! I undid the middle closure, removed 1.5 inches from each side by folding over, and added grommets. It's not perfect, but it's a costume, people.