I did a little bit of construction on my dress before dinner tonight.
Last weekend, I copied the foundation pieces on my printer/copier, measured and did a few flat alterations (I'm short-waisted, so I had already folded out an inch when I copied the pieces), and removed the seam allowances.
Without the seam allowances on the paper pieces, it was much easier to determine if I had seams hitting me in the correct places. I ended up removing 1.5" from the center front to put the princess seams where they belong on my bust. That is a huge amount to need to remove for a foundation that is supposed to be tight enough to hold the weight of the entire dress in the end!
I traced the pieces onto coutil and added seam allowance directly on the fabric. I decided to add an inch extra at the top because I wanted to make sure it covered my bra band all the way around.
I stitched it up on my marked stitchlines. Good thing I added that extra at the top because I was right that I needed about half an inch more than the pattern allowed for!
The foundation still needs a little tweaking, but I think it's good to move forward with and to base the outer dress pieces on it for flat alterations. I plan to use some zipties for boning.
#Butterick4731
I spent the day priming things for paint and then I remembered to shoot a quick video. #SewingStudioBuild
I started cutting all the edges while Janet was away yesterday morning. When she got back after lunch, she pulled out a roller and started filling in. I'll put a pic below in the comments. #SewingStudioBuild
We broke for lunch and then came back with a portal ac unit plugged in to an extention cord from the house. Can't wait until they finished hooking up all the electrical and we have the mini split cooling the room for us - it was stupid humid today! #SewingStudioBuild
Why do you have to be so pretty, brocade? I love you, but you are so fussy to work with!
#derbydress
I made a rub-off dress... the only change I made was to increase the width of the waistband from 2" to 3", which I am more-or-less satisfied with. I'd do a few things, construction-wise, differently next time, but this is an easy, comfortable dress.
The original is from Talbots.
It’s been awhile since I’ve had something to show, but I’m finally getting the pictures up! Both of these were from the Paloma pattern in the Itch to Stitch “Sew Beautiful” book. I did the top first to test the pattern, and tried to add some length to the sleeves, since 3/4 length only works here about 3 to 4 days of the year! I apparently underestimated the length I needed to add, but I had to cut crosswise even to add this much, so I couldn’t have done more.
For the dress, I did add more sleeve length (slightly overestimated this time). I also added ties to the neck and pockets, though in retrospect, I probably should have put them in higher. Based on the shirt, I’d thought putting them in the top part would be too high. So I inserted them in the first ruffle layer and it is maybe a bit too low.
Overall, though, I think this was a worthwhile pattern to play with.
