After making the bodice, the next step is to add the skirt, or if there's going to be more than one layer, then the overskirt first. For the mauve dress I cut the long pointy ends off of the triangular scarf and saved them for the hanging sleeves, then cut the next two sections of the scarf for the over skirt, and hemmed the bottom edges. (the side seams were already hemmed as they were the edges of the scarf)
The centre back of the skirt was stitched together halfway up, and then the long dangly lace was carefully reattached along the outer edge of the skirt, starting at the top on one side, going down and folding the lace at the corner, and hand stitching it to make a nice neat 90 degree corner. Then continue along the bottom, and making another 90 degree corner on the other end.
The lace overskirt for the pink gown was cut as long and wide as the leftover fabric would allow, and I hemmed both side seams.
To attach the skirt fabric to the bodice (just the reinforced bodice layer) I first use pins to mark the centre front of the bottom of the bodice, and then fold the bodice in half to find the middle point between the centre front and the back sides, marking them with pins. Then I take the skirt fabric, fold it into quarters, marking each section with a pin. Then I line up the pins on the bodice and skirt so the fabric is evenly distributed across the bottom of the bodice. Next, I start pleating the skirt fabric and pinning it in place along the bottom of the bodice.
To attach the skirt fabric to the bodice (just the reinforced bodice layer) I first use pins to mark the centre front of the bottom of the bodice, and then fold the bodice in half to find the middle point between the centre front and the back sides, marking them with pins. Then I take the skirt fabric, fold it into quarters, marking each section with a pin. Then I line up the pins on the bodice and skirt so the fabric is evenly distributed across the bottom of the bodice. Next, I start pleating the skirt fabric and pinning it in place along the bottom of the bodice.
I always pin everything first to make sure the fabric gets evenly distributed. That way should I run out of skirt fabric, or have too much left over by the time I get to the next section, it's easy enough to remove the pins and start over.
My sewing machine doesn't like stitching over pins, so I always baste the pleated skirt to the bodice before machine stitching along the traced seam line on the interfacing. Then I zig-zag to compress bulk at the edge.
The two gowns this far. Note that the two bodices are slightly different, as I had extended the front of the pink one a little. The pattern provided in this tutorial is the one used for the mauve gown
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For the pink bodice I extended the bottom of the pattern front. I couldn't extend the bodice all the way around because of the way the side part of the one-piece pattern fits together. If you really want to extend the bodice all the way around, you'd need to divide the pattern up into separate pieces in order to accommodate the flare required at the bottom of each section.
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