My family and I were lucky enough to get tickets to a Banana-ball game (Savannah Bananas vs the Firemen at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City) and why not dress to theme, right?
So here we go with Simplicity 8127!
I decided bananas and yellow gingham would be cute, and found a wonderful design at Spoonflower.com in the basic cotton.
The gingham is a printed design in quilting cotton. I was looking for that basic poly-cotton woven gingham but couldn’t find any in the right size check.
This pattern is very straightforward and fun to construct. I added an inch to the top line of the bodice for a full bust modesty adjustment.
All seams were finished with a four thread serger seam. I edgestitched a channel for a drawstring to lift the skirt swags. With the ties, I have the advantage of letting the skirt out flat for ironing after washing.
The slip is a thrifted sheer curtain. The game was going to be on a very hot day and I didn’t want any extra weight. The gingham ruffle is 6 full widths of 45” wide gingham, hemmed with 1” horsehair braid for support.
The pattern doesn’t have a pocket so I drew out a basic pocket shape and used that.
The skirts were pretty heavy so I made an elastic waist stay to keep it from hanging down so heavily on my shoulders.
I put the dress inside out on my dress form (shoutout to Dittoform.com!) so I could mark where the stay crossed the seamlines at the waist and tacked it in place. I pinned it in place on the inside and then stitched in the ditch on the outside.
I wore a bought petticoat for extra floof.
And I added hanging loops to the weight won’t stretch out the shoulder elastic.
My offspring wore a banana suit from Amazon, and it will see action later this month in a Star Wars cosplay, “Banakin Skywalker” 🤣
Anyway, 10/10, will be making this pattern again. :D
