Toddler Pinafore Smock Top, Day 8

By yesterday morning, all I needed to do to finish up the pinafore was to hem the ends of the ribbon ties and to add the last of the topstitching.  I had planned on doing that after dinner, but all of a sudden I was hit by a wave of exhaustion.  Not sure where it came from, but I was out for the night.  So I ended up finishing the pinafore this morning instead.  My record for getting these projects done within a week is now 2-2.  Now that I think about it, it's acutally 1-3, because I ended up finishing the pillowcases after midnight of Day 7.  Gollee, what a bummer.  I hope my record improves.

In any case, here's what I had completed by yesterday morning.  Look how well the gathering turned out:

This looks TONS better than the "ruffling" on The Ruffled Pillowcase Disaster!

I used a basting stitch to attach the gathered skirt to the bodice just to make sure I was happy with the distribution of the gathers.  Then I went back over it with a shorter stitch to secure it.

To cover the raw edge of the bodice lining and of the gathered skirt, the pattern has you fold under the edge of the lining and slipstitch (aka blindstitch) the lining to the skirt.  I ended up having to undo some topstitching I had done near the armholes to be able to attach the skirt to the bodice.  Bad planning on my part, but in the end I decided to remove the topstitching in that section anyway.

Bodice lining pinned to skirt.

I was going to add a topstitch to the bodice, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone.  I still folded the raw edge under, and pinned it in place, but skipped the slipstitch.  I ran a a few stitches to make sure the topstitch caught enough of the the edge of the lining to secure it.  Worked out perfectly!

Armhole topstitching partially removed.

Today I finished the topstitching and then worked on the ends of the ribbon.  I was going to just hem the ends, but thought that a scalloped stitch would look cute.

And now it's finished!  Little Darcy will look so cute in this pinafore, and I'm sure it'll end up being one of her favorite pieces of clothing!