How To Make a Bishop Dress (don't miss the assembly pictures)

Fabric Preparation

Preshrink the fabric before cutting the pattern by submerging the fabric in a five (5) gal bucket partially filled with very hot water, containing few drops of a liquid mild laundry soap, agitating the cloth up and down several times to make sure that all of the layers of cloth are wetted. Let the fabric sit in the water for about 20 minutes.

Rinse the fabric thoroughly, remove and place it on a clean white towel to air dry.

Pattern Preparation

Press the pattern with a dry iron to avoid damaging the pattern paper.

Cutting the cloth

For the finished bishop dress to hang correctly, make sure the fabric is straight, so that the grainline is parallel to the salvage. To determine the place to cut crossgrain pull a crossgrain thread to mark the fabric crossgrain. Cut along the pulled thread line. Fold the fabric lengthwise, smoothing the fold and aligning the selvages.

The fabric is off grain if the two (2) layers are not aligned. If the fabric is off grain, hold the fabric at opposite diagonal corners and pull gently making sure to hold and pull in the opposite direction from the distortion. Cut pattern pieces on folded fabric, right side of the fabric folded inwards. Pin the pattern to the fabric and cut the back, front and sleeves.

Pleat the bottom of the sleeves. Flatten the pleated cloth, stretching it out flat along with the pleating threads. With it out flat, hemstitch the raw edge and apply the lace. Join the sleeves to the front and back using tiny French seams (1/8”). Use a cloth marking pen to transfer the seam allowance, usually 5/8”, on the right side of the fabric, front and back.

Stay stitch a 5/8” seam with the wrong sides of the fabric together.

Press the seam. Trim the seam so that there is a 1/16” seam allowance.

To trim the seam, use your left hand to hold the seam and your right hand to hold the scissors. Slip the lower blade of the scissors under the raw edges. With both palms up and the scissors almost parallel to the seam line, trim close to the seam line. Fold the fabric along the seam line with the right sides of the fabric together. Sew a new 1/8” seam from the folded seam edge. Press the seam.

Pleat the fabric around the neckline.

Do not waste time sewing with cheap or old, dry thread on either conventional machines or sergers(overlock machines). When pleating around the French seams turn the knob of the pleater very slowly to avoid the breaking of the pleater needles.

Remove the pleating threads from the seam allowance. Gather the pleating threads to give the arm size of the sleeve. Use three (3) strands of thread when smocking the sleeves and stitch a little more loose than usual.

Stay stitch a 5/8” seam with the wrong sides of the fabric together. Stop the seam 5 ½” from the edge of the round smocked yoke. Press the seam. Trim the seam so that there is a 1/8” seam allowance. Fold the fabric along the seam line with the right sides of the fabric together. Sew a new 3/4” seam from the folded seam edge. Press the seam.

In the bishop dress a continuous placket is used. Before placing the placket, remove the pleating threads in the back of the bishop dress from the seam allowance.

Fit the continuous placket to the bishop dress before joining the bias strip that goes around the neckline. The placket should be long enough so that the bishop dress slips easily over the shoulders. The placket in the bishop dress needs to be approximately 5 ½” long. A firm finish at the lower end of the placket is very necessary as this point will sustain the most stress and wear the greatest. Cut a strip of fabric, twice the length of the placket plus 1”.

For example for a 5 ½” placket, cut a strip of fabric 5 1/2" times 2 plus 1", equals 12” long and twice the width of the finished facing, allowing ¼” on each side for the seams. Fold the placket strip lengthwise, press and mark the middle point.

At the dress back opening, place the right side of the placket strip against the wrong side of the bishop dress and align the placket strip so that the middle point of the placket strip coincided with the back French seam.

With the right side of the bishop dress on top, stitch the placket strip to the edge of the opening, starting at the edge of the smocked round yoke and using a very short stitch.

This seam starts ¼” wide and goes to the point where the French seam starts. Pivot the sewing machine needle at this point, set the sewing machine at a length of zero and stitch two (2) stitches. Set the machine back to a very short stitch and finish attaching the placket by turning on the other side of the opening to finish the seam again at ¼” wide.

Keep the seam width ¼” wide on the placket strip while attaching it to the bishop dress.

Turn the un-sewed edge of the placket strip on the right side of the dress. Press the seam and a ¼” seam allowance.

Fold the placket over the right side of the dress and stitch-on-the-ditch.

In preparation for the bias strip to be sewn around the neck, fold in and stitch in place, around the neck line, the side of the placket where the buttonholes are going to be made, leaving the other side straight.

With the right side up, spread and smooth the fabric so that the cross-grain is perpendicular to the lengthwise grain, which rungs parallel to the selvage.

To determine the width of the bias strip begin with the measurement for the finish binding, add 1”, and double the total.

For example, for the bishop neckline bias, the finished bias will be ¼” wide, the calculation is as follows:  ¼” + 1” = 1 ¼”, double this total gives 2 1/8”. Cut a strip of 2 1/8” wide. Avoid having a seam on the bias strip, particularly on the neckline, by cutting the bias strip for the neckline in one piece. With wrong sides together fold the bias strip lengthwise, match the raw edges, and press the folded edge, stretching the strip slightly.

Remember that the bias strips narrow slightly when you press and stretch them. From the folded edge, measure twice the finished width plus 1/8”, for ¼” bias, measure 5/8”. With the right side up chalk-mark the bias width of 5/8” from the fold. Trim the raw edges. To trim with a serger measure and chalk-mark the finished width and run a seam over the marked line. Remove all of the threads from your serger. Place the seam under the serger foot so that the seam aligns with the knife.

Always keep your fingers away from the serger knife and needles. ALSO, be sure to remove all pins before they reach the cutting knife!

Check the relationship of the seam to the serger foot to establish a sight line. Trim away the excess. Fold one raw edge in to meet the fold at the center and press. Repeat to press the other side.

Use a body form, a template, or the pattern to shape the pleated fabric around the neck and shoulders by separating or gathering the pleats around the neckline and shoulders.

Avoid the turtle neck effect resulting from a neckline too short.

To separate or gather the pleats use the pleating threads. When determining the size of the neckline, take into account the width of the placket on the buttons side, as this side will stay straight and contributes to the length of the bias strip.

Around the neckline, trim the seam allowance to ¼”. Hand baste the bias strip in place before stitching to make sure the bias strip fits smoothly and the neckline is not too tight.

When close to the bishop dress central back opening, stop hand basting the bias strip in place. Unfold the bias strip at the end of the opening and fold the right sides of the bias strip together. Align the folded edges of the bias strip and stitch a seam in the ends of the bias strip 1/16” from the edge of the bishop dress opening. This little seam may be sewn by hand with a short backstitch. Trim the seam allowance to ¼”

Repeat on the other side of the bishop dress opening. Turn the bias strip right side out. Clip the seam allowance making sure not to cut the seam. Fold the raw edges under, readjust the bias strip, and finish the basting in preparation for ditch-stitching. Hand baste the bias strip before ditch-stitching to prevent the under layers from shifting when they are stitched. When ditch-stitching use the zipper foot and, with the sewing machine needle to the right side, use a very short stitch.

Starting at the center of the front of the bishop dress stitch the selected smocking design. When smocking the yoke, remember that the turtleneck effect may be caused by tension when smock stitching too tight. When smocking around the round yoke, gradually, change the tension of the stitching as smocking each row away from the neckline so that the last row of the yoke is fairly loose to allow the bottom row to spread out nicely when the yoke is finished.

With wrong side together, pin stitch the raw side edges of the bishop dress. Run a stay-stitch seam along the seam line. Press the seam. To trim the seam, use your left hand to hold the seam and your right hand to hold the scissors. Slip the lower blade of the scissors under the raw edges. With both palms up and the scissors almost parallel to the bishop dress seam line, trim close to the stay-stitching. Turn the bishop dress to the wrong side. Pin stitch along the seam and stay stitch. Press the seam.

Remove the pleating threads.

Do not iron the smocked area!

The bishop dress has four (4) buttonholes, two (2) buttonholes on the smocked round yoke and two (2) in the back skirt. The two (2) buttonholes on the smocked round yoke are aligned with the neckline. The two (2) buttonholes on the skirt are parallel to the placket. The buttonholes are for 7/16” buttons. When cutting the buttonhole without clipping the stitches, carefully position one (1) straight pin on each end of the buttonhole and use scissor with very sharp points. Position the scissor points exactly where you want the button hole to begin, and close the scissors.

Using a hand-sewing needle and double strand of thread, sew four (4) 7/16” buttons neatly to the placket hiding the thread knots under the button. Insert a pin between the thread and button to form a shank so that the button is not attached to the bishop dress too tightly.

Use an erasable marking pen to mark the hem line of the bishop dress. Check the hem line to make sure it is straight. With the wrong side of the bishop dress up, fold up and press the hem. Press a ¼” from the raw edge of the bishop dress. With the right side of the bishop dress up, stay stitch this seam. Finish the hem by hand.