The first mock-up was made from scrap fabric, but for the second I decided to aim for a wearable toile, so bought a remnant of viscose in a weight similar to my 'proper' fabric and a print I would actually wear. As ever with remnants, I had to devise my own cutting layout to fit everything in. My method for doing this is to lay the fabric on the carpet, play around with the placement of the pattern pieces, and then once I have something which works photograph it and label the photo.
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| Part of my cutting layout |
Making the dress up was fairly straightforward, once I had got all the pleats in place. However, there's one construction detail which is invisible in the photograph, ignored in the line drawing on the back of the pattern envelope, and only hinted at in the drawn illustration.
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| Can you spot it? |
It's only really apparent on the pattern piece for the centre front panel. Although all the points of the diamond meet seam lines, the waist seam is not actually on the waist at the centre front.
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| The 'waistline' marking is the only clue |
I had attempted to take this into account when I shortened the bodice front, but there was a degree of guesswork involved. When I tried the toile on, I marked where my actual waist was with a green headed pin.
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| Marking my waist |
When I laid the pattern piece over the top, it was almost spot-on!
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| The green pin head is just visible |
Up to now, I had been fitting the dress with the sleeves in, but not supported. There are gathered stiffeners in the sleeve head, and also shoulder pads which extend beyond the shoulder seam. I put these in, and surveyed the effect. (Apologies for the poor quality of the next photos, they were phone snaps for reference, and not intended for the blog.)
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| That's a lot of shoulder! |
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| The face you pull when your sleeve head is bigger than your actual head |
The sleeves were also rather too long.
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| Not a problem I usually have |
After a bit of pondering, I thought to check where the shoulder seam sat relative to my actual shoulder. Sure enough, it was too far out, and pinching in the shoulder seam fixed the sleeve length and made the fullness - still full, but less absurdly so. I've redrafted the armscye for making the actual dress.
Finally, although for fitting purposes I had used the plain cotton centre panel that I made for the first mock-up, I still needed to make the quilt version in my toile fabric. I had no confidence in my ability to stitch all the lines freehand, so drew them out on a piece of tearaway stabilizer. I laid this over a piece of wadding, with the fabric underneath, and basted all the layers together.
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| Pinned out and basted together |
I then sewed them together, with a silky machine embroidery thread in the bobbin and ordinary thread on top.
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| All done, and pleasingly parallel lines |
I'm trying hard to banish the thought that it looks like a very small eiderdown - hopefully it will look better once it's in the dress!
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