[Maggie]

For those who made it reversible, did you alter the pattern at all? I don’t mind if a wee strip of the main fabric shows, but it would be even better if it didn’t.

[sayiamyou]

Probably you will need to make the lining the same length as the main dress and that’ll do it. I don’t have my pattern yet but this makes sense to me.

[rachel]

perhaps i’m a sewing dunce for not getting this (or totally spoiled by being spoon fed awesome directions by Liesl) 😉 but how exactly do you make it reversible? How would you finish the hem? i’m confused.

many thanks in advance!

[Liesl Gibson]

I think Karen made one that’s reversible, if you look through the Flickr group. Or maybe it was Jeanne?

Basically, you just don’t trim the lining to be shorter than the dress itself. And the two layers are hemmed separately, so they’ll hang separately. The inside layer may show a bit when the dress is worn, so if that bothers you, you may not want to choose this option.

And then you’ll want to sew a button on both sides of the dress so it can be buttoned either way it’s worn.

I hope that helps!

[rachel]

oohhhh – that makes so much sense! thanks so much, liesl! this roller skate pattern might just be my soul mate pattern. i’m in love.

[cybele727]

I made mine reversible, and deliberately trimmed the “lining” side an 1/8 shorter. Then when I stitched the hems the “outside” fabric peeks through at the hem when wearing the lining side out. I made sure that the button loop fabric was the “outside” fabric too, so that peeking out hem was linked in style to the button loop, making it more purposeful.

If you don’t want either side peeking through and aren’t perfectly precise (I know I’m not), then you can sew lace, or wide ric-rac around the hem so that is what is peeking out regardless of which side they wear.

[rachel]

LOVE all these tips. Thank you! <3 So did you also hem the lining and the “outside” separately?

[sayiamyou]

I plan to make my daughter’s reversible and I will hem the layers together. I’ve done this before with other O+S patterns (swing set, for instance) and it worked perfectly.

[rachel]

awesome, thanks!

[sayiamyou]

I can’t wait to see, Rachel. Are you making one for each of your girls?

[Maggie]

I hemmed the lining and outside separately. I foresee making the elastic bigger next year so I wanted to leave it open. I think hemming them together could work too.

I love Cybele’s idea about putting trim at the bottom to hid the inner layer.

Now if it would stop raining so I could have light for a decent photo…

[cybele727]

I sewed each as a separate hem. If you folded the raw edges in and top stitched the hems together closed, you would get a bit of a bubble effect and a stiffer dress, with less swish in the movement. I like swish myself! 🙂