Instead of trying to trace the piece and the pattern markings onto lace 44 times (the number of ruffle pieces needed for the petticoat), I measured the width of the piece, 10", and cut my pieces that wide using the markings on my cutting board as a guide. Just make sure to not do what I did, and think that the solid line down the center of the pattern piece is a cutting line. I cut two rows of ruffles half-width before I caught myself, and had to buy more lace.

The non-shiney lace became the top two layers of ruffles, the semi-shiney the next two, and the very shiney the bottom two layers. Theoretically, the all-cotton lace would dye darkest and the all-polyester would dye the lightest, but that turned out to be entirely wrong in real life. When I tried the stove top method of dying, the lace turned out very nice shades of rose pink but it all came out when it was sashed. (The "stir continuously" part was probably the culprit...) So I tried the washing machine method, using a bottle of the scarlet dye. The color didn't wash out, but the masses and masses of lace dyed a lovely bridesmaids pink. Not a bit of color variation due to fiber content. Pink was far better than plain white, so I left it at that.

I decided I wanted the shiney side of the rose-colored satin I bought to be the side that showed with the ruffles. I'm not sure I'm going to try it that way again; tracing the pattern markings onto the shiney side was a pain. Hopefully the effect will be pretty, but it's a lot of trouble. There's a reason the wrong side of satin is dull.

McCalls didn't include any steps for finishing the petticoat seams, and I didn't think about it until after the panels were sewn together. So I flat felled them all. Who wants unsightly seam allowances when showing off ruffles? I think I need more practice at flat felling, but it worked.

After failing miserably at gathering per the instructions (all in one fell swoop), I decided to gather each section between squares seperately. This made it much easier to adjust the gathers and pin them in place. (Tip: Use a contrasting color when basting. It makes it much easier to pick out the threads later. Also, it's much easier to sew all the ruffles pieces together and gather them all at once, instead of doing one row at a time.)

Somehow it failed to register in my brain that the last ruffle is put on slightly differently than all the others. As a result, I couldn't follow the pattern directions for hemming. Instead, I did a hand rolled hem all the way around. Such a pain, considering how full the petticoat is.

After wearing it, and seeing pictures of what it looked like when held up, I've decided to add more rows of ruffles at some point. Even though the ruffles are wide, too much of the satin shows in between each row. It's just not as aesthetically pleasing.