Rebel & Return

Yesterday morning, the sun shone so brightly on my monitor that it was almost impossible to see the words. Such bliss will begin to annoy me over the next few weeks and I'll use all kinds of things to block the rays until the sun's angles change again. Right now, it's a sign of pending spring. It happens every year. How lovely the seasons.




When I got home from my trip, I was disappointed with my dress. The fabric combos are fun especially the print, check, and plain although I think the sash would look better with a plainer, less pleated, front. What bothers me is...




... the uneven waistband. It both dips toward the side and rides up too high in the back. Can you see the red head of the pin at the back? That's where the bottom of the waistband should be. It's more noticeable on me especially with the different lines of fabric. This is my fault. I wanted to focus on learning techniques from Ron and took what I thought was an already fitted pattern which obviously still had some flaws.



It's also over fitted. Somehow, I've gotten into the habit of sewing fitting shells instead of dresses with room to breath. That won't work. I decided to start over with McCall's 5927. Because the pattern comes with A, B, C, and D cup size pieces, I knew I'd be able to work with it and keep the waist seam level but first, I compared the bodice pieces to the Butterick fitting shell pieces and widened the shoulders slightly, about 1/4".

This is the first muslin. One dart in a D cup bodice makes for a HUGE dart that looks like a bullet bra. Not flattering. I altered the dart to a shoulder princess seam. The waist pleat closest to center front and the front bodice dart did not match. One reviewer thought this was her mistake. It's not. It's the pattern. I moved the pleat over to align with the dart, now seam. The back skirt was drafted with a dart at center back incorporated into the seam line. This caused a bubble below the waist. I altered that to a straight center back seam with two back darts each side which is more flattering on my shape anyway. LOL - is it still the same pattern?

This is the final muslin. The bust point is slightly too low and the CB and CF lengths are slightly too long. I altered those and felt confident enough to cut it out in a lightweight denim with a slight amount of stretch. When I stitch the right shoulder, I'll lift the front 1/8" at the neck to get rid of a wrinkle that develops there.

I rebel against and then return to princess seams all the time. They're the most flattering for my figure type and I get tired of them. They also need more clipping and pressing than darts and require some kind of seam finish. I read a while back to stagger the clips on each side of the seam rather than cutting them together. This prevents puckers showing on the front. One side of the seam is is clipped to spread it open. The other side needs little V's taken out to remove bulk where the clips overlap. You can see the overlap in the image above.




I researched finishing princess seams yesterday and one suggestion was mounting, a term I'd never heard of. Basically, you sew another bodice section out of a lightweight, lining type fabric - I used cotton batiste - and then place the two sections wrong sides together with the seams to the inside, baste around the edges, and treat it as one. Because there are darts in the back bodice, I've used this technique only in the front. So far, it seems to work well. I'm ready to sew the waist seams and insert the zipper - invisible - using the technique Ron taught me and my new zipper foot. We'll see how that goes - VBG.

I'm working all day tomorrow but hopefully will have this dress done for next week. Once I know if the waist is working the way I want, I'll redo the print and plain dress. This time, instead of using a check waistband, I'll make a check belt possibly with green piping along the edges and/or a green buckle.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - the ability to keep sewing through disappointments