Well, it’s been a while since my last sewing update. But I did mention in my last sewing post that I’m working on making an 1870s inspired ballgown with all of the underpinnings. And since I already posted about the making of the chemise, the next in this little sewing series is the drawers!

But before I share about making the drawers, I should probably admit that it’s been about 5 months since I finished them and I honestly do not remember much about the whole process. I don’t even think I got any pictures while making it. 😅 I’ll share what I can, though, and who knows, maybe writing this post will spark some memories.

Pattern Alterations

Well, the first thing I did was use a pattern. I remember that much at least. I did decide to alter it a bit to fit my tastes. And that decision certainly proved to complicate things a bit.

I wanted to add pintucks along the bottom, so I decided to change the placement of the beading lace (lace that has holes to thread ribbon through) as well. That pattern alteration wasn’t too hard, but the drawers ended up being a bit longer than I had wanted. So I might add more pintucks or trim the length a bit if I ever make them again. Not that the length is much of a problem since they won’t be seen under the ballgown anyway. 😄

I also decided to add a pointed waistband and change the closure to overlapping skirt clasps instead of a drawstring. This was probably the hardest part since I had actually never done a pointed waistband before.

I cut the pieces out of some white cotton muslin I had on hand. And when I say that I had to read the pattern instructions many, many times over to even grasp what I was supposed to do, I am not exaggerating one bit. This was actually my first time making anything pants-like, so I really needed to fully understand each step of the process.

Sewing It Together

Next came sewing it together. Or maybe I marked the pintucks first? Yeah, I probably marked them first because it would have been hard to otherwise. With each leg sewn together, I sewed the pintucks in place. I think the next step was to sew the two pant legs together so that they were one full piece.

At this point it was looking rather ridiculous and MUCH too big for me. But before I could gather it all into a waistband, I needed to finish the legs. I added the lace and pulled the ribbon through it only to realize that I had 1/2 as much ribbon as I needed, so I had to order more.

Then I prepped the extra length of fabric I was adding on below the lace. It was basically just a simple rectangle sewn together to make a tube before sewing several pintucks into it. Then I added that onto the bottom of the beading lace. After that came some more lace which I ended up picking off later and replacing with different edge lace.

Finishing the Waistband

For the waistband, it was a struggle for me to take a straight-waistband pattern and switch it to a pointed waist. On top of that, the original pattern called for all of the fabric to be simply gathered into the waistband. I, however, wanted to do box pleats so that it would match the chemise somewhat. After a lot of fiddling around with it, I was finally able to figure out the pleating and get that basted into place before attaching the waistband. And believe it or not, the waistband was actually very easy to attach.

NOT!!!

I had to unpick the waistband 4 times before I got it right. I tried sewing it on by machine at first, but I ended up hand stitching the front point down after so many failed attempts on the machine. Then I added the skirt clasps on at the back for a easy closure. And after that, I ended up replaced the lace along the bottom hem with some that wasn’t quite so wide.

(Also the pencil mark for the center front of the waistband didn’t wash out as well as I hoped it would. 🙁 I guess I’ll have to work on getting that out sometime soon.)

A Completed Project

Then, after making sure all of the seams were finished and adding the ribbon, I was done!! It took me longer than I was expecting to complete these drawers, mostly because I set it aside for several weeks while I worked on some other projects I was more excited about. But I ended up finishing them at last, and that’s the part that really counts after all.

How do you think the drawers turned out? What color ribbon would you have chosen? Have you ever set a project aside for a while but finally ended up finishing it much later?

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