The Re-Styled Smith Pinafore
Thank you for the excellent comments on the Smith Pinafore in last week’s UFO post (A Catalogue of UnFinished Objects, new edition). I got all enthused and determined to do that one first.
This is the first sample I made of the popular Smith pinafore pattern. The red stripe hides the fact that I didn’t cut the panels wide enough initially – they’re just butted together behind the stripe.
I find I don’t really like the red stripe much and the pinafore never gets worn.
I did some thinking, and decided that the red stripe had to be either unpicked or covered up.
There’s none of the original fabric left, and a look through the denim offcuts pile yielded nothing and was a reminder of how difficult navy blue is to match.
However, I found some tiny pieces of blue fabric from a dress I made my sister last Christmas. It was a zero waste dress and the strips were left from straightening the cut edges, and bit from the selvedge.
The colour was just right, and the strips were just wide enough to cover the red stripe.
Probably most people would have thrown these strips away, but now I have the same smug satisfaction of a man who’s saved an obscure length of timber in his shed and finally found a use for it.
I pressed under each side of the strips, the tiniest amount possible.
To get the strips even, I pressed under one side, then chalked a line to follow for the second:
To finish things off, I found the original red topstitching thread and continued the stitching across the new blue stripe.
I love a happy ending! So pleased with how this turned out. I now have a more neutral and versatile pinafore.
I’m wearing it for Me Made May today.
Cheers!
Brilliance and patience!
Thanks Heidi, I’m sure I’ll wear it LOTS now.
Great solution!
Thanks Cathy!
Brilliant save. Entirely justifies hanging onto those rags.
Is there such a thing as an addiction to the feeling of “I KNEW this would come in handy someday”? Because, if so, I suffer from that.
I don’t know (and Google didn’t either) but it’s a fine feeling!
YES so much better without the red stripe, well done for doing something about the stripe xx
Thanks Gwen – didn’t realise just how much better it would look.
I don’t know what it is, because I liked the red stripe version, but that really does look so much better. Well done!
Funnily, I did like the red stripe one too, and I still like it as a garment, it’s just that it didn’t seem to work with actually wearing it.
Hooray for leftovers! Although I’m beginning to think that you have the most enormous reel of red topstitching thread.
Haha! I have TWO enormous reels of red topstitching thread (in different shades of red).
Much better indeed, well done! Looking forward to MMM next year to read how well it turned out on the long run.
I just listened to your humpty dumpty video at making zen and I really enjoyed it. Definitely the best of all the ones I managed to listen to, thank you. And my son has spotted the humpty dumpty on the video, asked what it was and said with a very interested tone “it’s the SAME humpty as in the song…?” I think I know what I’m sewing next 😀
Agree – I ended up wearing it every day for the rest of the week, I liked it so much!
That is very cool about Humpty Dumpty and your son 🙂
What a great save to this dress, Liz! I’ve been more adventurous with my sewing lately, trying to resize patterns or combine parts from different patterns. I often find myself unpicking and adjusting. Watching you go through this process is an inspiration. 🙂
Thanks Mary. It was so worth it – I’ve been wearing it a lot since.