Dovetailed Philippa Pinafore
This is my second project from Adaku Parker’s book, Sewing with African Wax Print Fabric, the Philippa Pinafore. I’m a big fan of a dungaree style pinafore, but the ones I’d made to date have been single colours, doing it in a patterns is a bit of a departure. But I love it!
The fabric is the ‘Her hair was adorned with beads’ pattern in an orange and royal blue with graphic black and white stripes and polka dots. So lovely! I made a size 16, which according to the pattern takes 4 yards, but I ended up using quite a bit less. I probably have about a metre left, minus a very narrow strip at the side because I ended up recutting the strap (we’ll get to that!). For the lining I used some shirting scraps I had lying about. I also used that fabric for the back of the pockets.
This pattern is marked a three star difficulty (most of the other garments are two stars) and there definitely were some new techniques for me. I’d never done a half elasticated waist before, it was a bit different from elastic all the way round, because you don’t pull the elastic through a channel, you insert it from the long side. It felt a bit counterintuitive and was a bit fiddly, but it worked a treat! It’s so nice to have it fitted at the back waist but still have a nice clean flat front. Definitely more half elasticated waists in my future!
Another thing I did this time was to pattern match the patch pockets. I didn’t do a perfect job with it, but they still blend in really nicely. The third learning thing was to attach poppers, it’s been years since I last did it and I couldn’t remember at all. I actually bought some popper pliers to do it (last time I had to hammer them in using the tool that came in the packet with the poppers), and it makes such a difference! Definitely £13 well spent!
One thing to mention is that the pattern as written in the book does need a correction. It tells you to cut 4 of the strap pieces and attach two together for each strap, but you actually only need 2, plus 2 in interfacing and you fold each interfaced piece in a half.
The strap pieces also seem incredibly short, and I absolutely did not believe they would be long enough, so I lengthened them. But I ended up taking exactly what I added off again, so believe the process!
I did make a number of changes though to make this fit my own shape:
I added a small dart to the front bib pieces as a full bust adjustment, using instructions for adding a dart to a dartless bodice. I think generally you would do an FBA on a pinafore by just adding length to the bib but I was worried that in the African wax I would end up with it sticking out weirdly. I added just 2cms in width, so the dart is pretty tiny, but it definitely makes a difference and guides the bib to sit in the correct place on my boobs.
I also added 2cms in width to the skirt front to match the added width in the bib
I did also lengthen the actual bib itself. I initially added 5cms, but ended up taking half of that out again in the end.
I also took out 3cms out of the side of the top of the bib on each side (6cms in total) as the fabric was either pooling in the middle if I attached the straps at the edge, or the edge was sticking out when I made sure the centre lay flat.
I also took out 2cms each side (4cms in total) out of the back bib.
I attached the poppers so that the strap it would lie under the bib rather than over it because I think that looks nicer.
I topstitched round the edge of both front and back bib for a bit of extra tidiness.
I stitched down the top edge of the back waistband using stitch in the ditch so that the elastic was held firmly in place.
With all these adjustments, this ended up being a slightly longer project than I expected, but it was so worth spending that time because I’ve now got a really god fit round the top and a dress I absolutely love!
P.s. The hairband is also from the book, the Harriet hair tie.
