Dress update

I'm actually enjoying doing the fitting adjustments on this dress - surprise!

When we last spoke, I'd made adjustments on the bodice, moved the darts, and had the side seams come out all uneven. So I made a new version of the pattern piece for the front bodice, with my adjusted darts, and evened out the side seam. Then cut out a new muslin of the top.

Here's where I am now: I had to shorten the shoulders - on the front I took it from the straps, and on the back I shortened the whole thing. Amazingly, this made the side seams the same length as the front (they were longer before). Awesome thing #1: I sewed up the back where the zipper will go, and still managed to squish it on, which helped immensely - I can't really figure out how to adjust the back by myself with my short arms, but at least I can see where the problem is! I do need to do a sway back adjustment, since the back is dipping down below my waist. And my adjustments to make the side seams straight means the bottom of the bodice is now bigger than the waistband, so I need to figure that out. Maybe make the darts from the waist bigger? Or just redraw the seams. Phew!

It's kind of hard to see with my crap self-portraits, but in the second photo on the right you can see that the back is dipping below my waist, and is also wrinkling around there. You can see the imbalance a bit in the last photo too. Also, please enjoy my pyjama pants.

Awesome thing #2: the fact that I managed to take a photo of my back in the mirror. SKILLS.

Update! I made the swayback adjustment, which seems to have worked well. And the waistband seems to fit to the skirt now, which makes no sense to me, but okay. Having sewed the waistband on, though, I suspect it's a bit too short right in the front. And possibly too large around the waist. I may be making yet one more copy of the shirt front pattern pieces. I'll attach the skirt and see how it works first.

(As for the ongoing shirt, my adjustment worked this time, hooray! And then I futzed with seam finishes for a while. I'm now ignoring it because the next step is to trim the edges with bias tape, which scares me a little.)

Me-Made May and more fun with muslins

Yes, I took the pledge. I'm going to participate in Me-Made May by wearing one thing made by me each day in May (except when I'm in NY). I only have something like 6 things so far, unless I manage to finish either March's failed shirt, or April's dress, so there'll be a lot of repeating clothes. But maybe it'll encourage me to hurry up and make more. :)

Meanwhile, last night I unpicked the shirt to make one more attempt at a bust adjustment that will actually work. I hope it does - I really like the fabric, despite it being a PAIN to sew. It's got these embroidered flowers that my wussy machine doesn't want to sew over. All will be forgiven if I can make the shirt work, though.

And I'm working on fitting my dress. I did a full-bust adjustment following the slash-and-spread method from this great book: Fit for Real People.

I needed to add 3 inches to each slash, which meant I ended up having to add a dart to the side (as well as the one from the waist that was already there). But adding 3 inches at each of those cuts, the new dart, and trying to go from a 12 at the top to a 16 waist, meant that my edges didn't end up straight. I still have some figuring out to do! I had to move the darts at bit, too, although I think I managed to get them ending at the right place so I don't have dart nipples. Anyway, I've had to try for another version of the front bust piece - as soon as I get more practice material, take 2 will be underway.

And then, after making two things that needed adjustment, I think my next project is going to be a super basic skirt!