Contemplating The Possibilities

Sometimes when I'm working on a project, it feels like I've spent more time contemplating the possibilities than actually sewing. Does that happen to you? It's how I spent my weekend although I also did a lot of sewing and was quite pleased with the results.




When I returned to fashion sewing, I bought a dressform. It was something I'd always wanted and I'm glad I bought one even though a dressform can never - IMHO - truly duplicate your exact body.

Millicent's neck is wider than mine and there's no way to adjust it smaller. I've tried as close as possible to duplicate my narrower upper back and wider back hips with my fuller bust and narrower front hips. Her configuration is close but not quite because, although there are numerous adjustment points on this form, the bust point is not one of them.

Millicent's bust point is higher than mine. She's a whole lot perkier - and smaller - so I added a bra and padded it out to my size carefully measuring that the shoulder to bust point and bust point to bust point matched mine except I now need to redo that "alteration" because taking garments off and on, and especially taking the Lycra cover off and on, has shifted the bust upward. HOWEVER... "she" is still wonderful to have especially knowing that when I put the garment on me...




... things will be where they need to be. Here's the front of the mostly finished Vogue 8667. It still needs the collar. I debated what to do with the sleeves and the collar for most of the weekend because the sleeves ended up too tight and I wasn't sure which direction I wanted to go in.




See the "excess" fabric toward the front of the shoulder seam on Millicent. The same "excess" is not present on me. It's caused by an alteration for my forward shoulders that Millicent doesn't need.




Here is the opposite shoulder on me. It's harder to see what I mean because the sleeve's hemline is too tight but the fabric that sticks out on Millicent sits against the curve of the shoulder on me. Instead of altering the shoulder line of my garment which would be angled forward significantly, I alter the sleeve cap resulting in...

... this unusual shape that tips forward moving the crown of the sleeve cap to the position I need. You can read more about how I do this alteration in an earlier posting Elbow Length Or Elbow Darts.

The sleeve hem is too tight because of another alteration. There was too much ease in the body of the garment so I took in the side seam, which was continuous, meaning that I also took in the sleeve seam completely forgetting to consider bicep width until after I had cut off that extra 1/2" on each side. When I hemmed the sleeves and tried the dress on, I realized what I'd done and that one inch less of bicep width equals a too tight and unflattering sleeve.




After hemming the skirt, I pondered my options for the rest of the weekend and decided to convert the sleeve to a facing by edge stitching, trimming the width to 3/4", finishing the edge, clipping, tucking it inside the garment, and top stitching it in place. It's not the neatest facing ever but it works. I could have removed and replaced the sleeves only the dress has a summer sleeveless feel about it that I also like. To wear it now, I'll add a black cardigan, belt, and heels.

This is the most fitted dress I've sewn in a long time. After all the work I spent on fit this past two weeks, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out although I'm debating if it's too tight. I've considered letting out the side seams slightly for a bit more ease except this is linen. It'll naturally stretch with wear so a better choice might be to wear it for a day and see what happens.

If you look closely at the back picture above, especially the right side of the picture, you can see that my waist is ever so slightly below the seam line - about half an inch. I'm going to tweak the sloper just that little bit more for better fit and then...




... put together the pieces for Vogue 8511 to take with me to the Ron Collins workshop. I sewed a version of this dress before and didn't get the shoulders quite right. They pulled and the dress was somewhat uncomfortable. This time, I'll use the PMB drafted bodice combined with the pattern's skirt tissues to get exactly the fit that I want.

I haven't decided on the fabric yet. I want to check my fabric stash to see what I have although there's a wonderful denim at Fabricland right now that would be fabulous. I may just end up with that. VBG - like I need more fabric. It doesn't count if you use it right away... right?

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - good fit