The Accidental Dior Dart

Source

I don't know how many of you follow Patter~Scissors~Cloth, but you totally should. There is a wealth of information on her blog, including the Ready To Wear Tailoring series, which is when the project I am working on now started. Like... eons ago. So lets do a memory refresh shall we?

Remember this cropped jacket/bolero thing I was going to do for the RTW tailoring? Well, while searching through my, now rearranged, boxes I came across the muslin I had started way back when. And since I'd been thinking about how badly my wardrobe was lacking in jackets I also thought "hey... I should finish this!". And suddenly all the things I've been practicing and reading are starting to come together, like such:

Uh,wait, how did that get in there? That's not my jacket!  It is, however, the kittens up for adoption right now.  You know you want to! LOOK AT TEH CUTE! Anyway, moving along.

Here we go!  This is after I did a FBA on an armhole princess seam. Its better than not fitting (no photo of original), but uh... messy. So I undid the right side and started repinning to get the right lines.  And that's when I discovered I really needed a dart. So I pinned and marked and this is what it looks like from the front now. At first I though the princess seam dart would be a dead dart, but nope, its staying. Sorry its a bit blurry...

Also... I needed a dead dart to prevent gaping. Look how much better that is!

Oh, yeah, the back gape in the armhole. That goes away when I put it on with shoulder pads because I have rounded shoulders.  A feature that was hard for me to translate when padding out the dress form. My 70's dress, however, confirmed that in everything else its a pretty darn good replica.  Wrinkles are from the thing being in a box for over a year.

Overall, I'm pleased as punch, though I do need a bit more width in the back, which I think I can do just by adding 1/4 inch to the center back seam, though I'm trying to determine how to do that without expanding the neckline. Suggestions?

Also, I've decided on the Simplicity trousers for my first TNT pattern in that respect. I have enough of the fabric to do a matching bolero/trouser set which would be awesomely obnoxious, IMHO.