Making A Dirndl

It took a year (during which I spent most of that time working too much and planning a wedding instead of sewing), but I finally finished the dirndl I started!

Probably a pretty crazy idea since I didn't have much sewing experience, but I'm so glad I did it. I learned a lot about sewing, many new German terms, and I learned a lot about trachten. I look at dirndls in a totally different way now, having sewn one. And I have a lot of respect for how well-constructed my wedding dirndl is!

Oh, and I'm pretty sure I now know then entire inventory of both the Oberpollinger and Karstadt am Bahnhof sewing departments. 

I started last year with a dream, a pattern, and a pile of fabric. (Burda #7443, for anyone who wants to try)

This was the original plan...which of course NEVER quite is reality. I'll be honest, I struggled with the apron fabric. I wanted to sew the dirndl in silk instead of cotton, and it was tough then finding suitable apron fabric. I'd decided to go with this striped orange and green stuff, which would pick up the purple as well. 

The first mishap was the lining (the lighter purple fabric), which apparently I cut out backwards. That was easily remedied, and with new lining (which I liked better), I completed the bodice.  Even assuming you make no mistakes, you have to cut and mark all 14 pieces three different times (outer fabric, lining, and interfacing). Painful!! That definitely was the worst part. 

I also learned an important lesson about not deviating from the pattern. I was a little worried it would be too tight, so I sewed them together with less seam allowance than indicated. Which would have been fine, except that in the end it was a little too big. Taking in the seams normally would be no problem, but it was a bit trickier with trying to make the same alterations to the lining and have everything still fit together!

But the bodice turned out well and the skirt perfectly. And then it sat for months.... at first I was a bit afraid to finish it since I'd gained some extra weight. But then after a successful workout regimen that was no longer an excuse. I had to just face the fact that I was scared to sew the two pieces together!

Due to my bodice adjustments, the seams didn't all line up perfectly, but I'm still pleased with the results of my first effort. Here are the front and back views. 

As soon as I stopped congratulating myself that the dress was not a total disaster, I quickly learned the ugly truth that the real work was still ahead of me. It took a couple weeks of scouring the internet (English and German) to find out how to make the lovely dirndl trim. The biggest difficulty was not knowing what you call the stuff. (It's called box-pleated trim in at least one version). 

But then when I showed Herr J the plan, he correctly pointed out that the apron really didn't go well with the dirndl. And ....back to the drawing board....

After a few more outings to the fabric store, I settled on this purple floral brocade.  Sometimes procrastination pays off. As in when I first moved to Germany, there was no drivers' license reciprocity with Texas. And when I finally got around to applying for my German license 3 1/2 years later, they'd signed a treaty and all I needed was a vision test. This time, one fabric store stocked a very limited range of pre-made trim. It was quite new and even the fabric store ladies had no idea what it was called, thus reassuring me that it wasn't just my stupidity in not knowing what to call this stuff. 

Unfortunately, the trim didn't work out either. I guess I was forcing it, trying to make something match from a very limited number of trims. 

At this point I took a very patient Herr J to the fabric store and got his help. After about an hour of trying different things, I settled on a flat braided silver trim that he suggested. And then bought the necessary trimmings and silver thread. 

The silver metallic thread was a dream - not as easy to sew with as regular thread, but it blended in perfectly and you can't see where the trim is attached. The final step of sewing on the buttons was a bit scary, since any mistakes would be clearly visible.  But, I needed to finish it up before Oktoberfest and had to take the plunge. 

I can't count how many trips I made to various stores to buy more of something, or something different. Or tried to ask for something in a store, only to realize that I have no idea what it's called in English, let alone in German. Even though my apron pattern called for pencil pleating tape and the German instructions called it "stiftelband," twice the store staff didn't know what it was. They did refer me to a specialty sewing store...that was of course closed for holidays for the month of August. I stumbled across it in a department store when buying ribbon for the wedding favors. 

So finally, after a long adventure, I did finish the dirndl. I'd love to make another one, but have more dirndls that I should have already.  The table of trachten fabric does call to me when I pass it in the store. But for now I'm going to concentrate on other projects. Possibly even more crazy than making a dirndl with very little sewing experience...

Herr J's New Scarf

I still haven't finished the dirndl, but did take up a new hobby that:

1) Fits into my work-travel schedule,

2) Is portable, and

3) I can actually finish in a reasonable time!

KNITTING!!

It kind of started as a joke, with me asking Herr J if he wanted a scarf. He said he would wear one but didn't have one. I joked, "I'll make you one," and he replied, "I'd definitely wear it!"

And so off to the wool store I go and find some lovely wool dyed in different shades of blue, grey, brown. And some needles.

And then I consult Google and figure out how to knit. I found a pretty simple pattern for a manly scarf that was ribbed and only had knit and purl stitches - nothing too fancy.

There were some speed bumps along the way and something I did was wrong (perhaps winding the yarn the wrong direction?), but i actually liked the way it turned out. And then halfway through it started to be ribbed again. I had to figure out what I had done wrong, rip out the "right" rows, and go back to the wrong way. But, it worked and Herr J now has a warm scarf.

And of course having no experience, I bought twice as much as I should have. But I love this yarn and am making myself a girly scarf (long, ribbed, narrow, and with fringe).

The key to this is that I've been knitting on the train between Munich and Frankfurt. I'm sure it's a funny sight - the 1st class car is mostly German businessmen in suits...and one businesswoman in a suit, knitting.  But it helps to pass the time and I feel great accomplishing something.

Dirndl Update

I have been working on the dirndl in sporadic bursts, but it finally is starting to take shape. I think the top is 80% of the work!!

Both layers of the bodice are complete and I've pinned them together.  I need to make a few adjustments but am almost ready to attach the pieces and put on the skirt.  So far, so good...

This weekend we stumbled upon a great trachten outlet just outside of Munich and I picked up a fun trachten hat. 

I hope to make some further progress this week, but have a couple of work trips planned.

Dirndl Progress

After many, many hours of marking, pinning, and cutting, I'm finally making some progress on the dirndl project.

 

Let's just say that this will be a giant learning experience, as the instructions are full of a long list of things I've never done:

• make something with a lining
• use interfacing
• use a pattern without seam allowances included
• princess seams
• pleats

So, to start off, I decided to be cautious and do something else I've never done before - make a test version!

As usual, the first challenge was figuring out what size to use: (For those of you non-sewers, the pattern comes drawn for several sizes and you cut it out to your size). This part is never fun, as your pattern size usually is a size or two (or three) above the size you wear from a store. Similar to how couture and some designers haven't changed their sizing over the years will have you in a larger size than the other designers who have increased the sizing over the years.

The test version worked out ok, though it did show me this would be much harder than I thought!

And then the not so fun part began....I traced and cut and traced and traced and...  For the 6 pattern pieces, I had to mark and cut each one 6 different times! And I ended up doing an extra 2 sets because I'd cut out the lining backwards.  So, the bright purple cotton lining is now a blue silky patterned fabric. A much better choice, but frustrating to have to do it all over again.

As you see from the top picture, I had to draw 1.5mm seam allowances around everything before cutting it out.

Here we have the outside of the dirndl cut. The skirt parts are cut out too, but I've put those away for now. I think the bodice will be 80% of the work! 

After all that cutting, I decided to cheat a little on the lining. Since all of the markings would be on the interfacing (the black material, which irons onto the lining fabric).  I just ironed them on to the lining and then cut around it. I couldn't bear the the process of measuring and drawing the seam allowances again!!

  

I took advantage of having cut out the lining backward and used those pieces as another test. After my first not-so-good attempt, I researched how to sew curves and princess seams. (excellent hint from ThreadsMagazine: cutting notches in the convex one and ironing out the concave one to make it bigger is a HUGE help).

Not bad for a beginner! (though apparently I need a tailor's ham to properly iron out the curve...yet another thing I knew nothing about)

And everything is laid out to start the sewing (lining, interfacing side up)

The funny part is that the actual sewing part takes very little time. It's all the measuring, marking, pinning, and cutting that takes all the time. Oh, and the reading the pattern a thousand times to try to understand what it is saying. I swear, it's tougher to decipher than most legal documents!

So here's the first measurable progress, the bodice lining.

I definitely like this lining better than the first fabric!

Hopefully I'll get some free time to work on the outside this week.

Crazy Projects

I have a new project. It's one part excitement over Oktoberfest and one part looking for a creative outlet.

I'm going to make a dirndl. Or at least to try.

After much debate, I settled on a purple dress with dots, and a bright striped fabric for apron and trim. The brighter purple is just for a fun lining, so it shouldn't show. Luckily, the stores here have a big table or two full of trachten fabrics!

We'll see how it goes...I'll definitely take pictures along the way.