Seventies Dress: The Making Of

I think I might have promised some constructions notes on this some time back, right?  Well, here goes.  I went ahead and measured all the pattern pieces and determined that, for the most part, it would fit. I just needed to make a FBA.  Even though the cowl neck portion is cut on the bias, I didn't think it would stretch enough, or that it would but look bad.  Here's how to do an FBA on this type of princess seam.

1) First, go ahead and trace 1/2 of the bodice piece.  Trying to do both halves will make you to stab yourself in the leg, so don't do it. Trust me.

2) Go ahead and hold the traced piece up to yourself, wear a cami or something that you can pin it to, mark your bust apex.

3) Tape it over some other piece of paper.

4) This is very similar to the Roobios FBA (seriously, go read it), but I didn't want a side dart, so I put all the fullness into the underbust gathers.  You will want to redraw the stitching line using a French Curve.  And also, due to paranoia, I added about .5 inches of length. Which turned out to be a very bad idea. More on that in a minute.

Ok, so moving on to construction.  This thing is a FABRIC HOG! Seriously,  Ooona sent me over four yards of this fabric and in the end I had enough left over to make my daughter a top.  The thing about these sort of slippery slinky knits is to be very careful that you don't stretch it when laying it out in any way.  I was using the ironing board to pool the excess fabric on because I could only cut one large skirt panel out at once. I didn't take photos of this part, I was busy swearing and stressing out my husband. He got over it, eventually.

In any case, I had this clever plan of using bias cut fusible interfacing, also a lesson in things Not TO DO.  You can't get the iron hot enough for it to stay put.  I did manage to use the velvet pressing board my Mother left to me (those things are expensive! If you ever find one under 100 dollars GET IT RIGHT THEN).

needle boards also like to collect thread

In any case, I managed to get the whole thing cut out and sewn up in one night, to the point where I could try it on. Then tragedy struck!

saggy boob

The dreaded Saggy Boob (said in Heidi Klum's voice)! NOOOOOOoooOOoooo!!!  I had a complete meltdown that resulted in my husband handing me a xanax and chamomile tea and telling me to go to bed.

I tackled it again after my short work week. If the left side looks better, that's because I have it pinned up here.  I ended up taking a good inch and a half in pinning it, went over it with a triple zigzag stitch and clear elastic for stability (and added it to the shoulders), then trimmed excess fabric. Carefully.  Hooray! It Worked!

To be honest, all I did for finishing the edges was turn it under twice and use a tiny zigzag.  Facings on this stuff? NOT HAPPENING. Also, finding matching thread was almost impossible, but I ended up going with dark red on the serger and a dark purple in my Mom's Viking. I really wish my Brother had been operational at this point, its a lot happier to work on knits.

Oh right, the after on dealing with Saggy Boob.

One day, I'll get new floors. *sighs*

I didn't bother to hem it, it really didn't need it in this case.  And of course, I still haven't gotten more photos of me in it.  Here's a slightly different phone photo than the one I posted before.

This are serious face, I are serious Time Lord. I have evil eyebrows, too.  

Alright then. I hope that was in some way enlightening. Also, this did show me that, other than the rounded shoulders, my doppleganger is pretty close to my proportions and reliable for early fitting.

Rotating a FBA Dart on Cowl Necks

I am by no means claiming that I'm an expert here. However,  when working on this pattern I did have an AHA! moment. The design ease through the bust was 1.5 inches. This meant that I needed to add 4 inches in total width to give myself 45.5 inches (converter to metric here).  

This pattern, the cowl tank from Simplicity 2345, has a self facing on the cowl.  Its basically the front pattern flipped up and mirrored that you just fold over.  It comes down below the bust and solves the problem of having to finish the front neck seam. Kinda awesome, actually.  So, I cut the self facing off and started with a y-bust dart. 

Y-Bust Dart, Yellow Like important later

 So here you see the three lines for cutting the  the darts,  arrows in the directions you cut.  The yellow one we don't cut yet, but you want to mark it now.  Remember to cut to the seam allowance, then snip from the seam allowance in.  That way you have a tiny hinge.

Fun with arrows.

 Ok, now we tape it to our wax paper, or whatever you have underneath.  I use wax paper cause I always put tape in the wrong place.  This is where we cut the yellow line, including the wax paper.

Here we rotate the side dart closed, opening the dart in the cowl.

 So, I kinda wasn't thinking in this spot here. I should have had some more wax paper underneath to tape and stabilize.  I ended up doing this afterwards and it was fine.  You now want to straighten your shoulder seam.  Your arm-scythe will have changed shape, but as long as the length hasn't changed you're still good.  I think in most cases I would have rounded from the shoulder  seam to the middle, giving me sort of an arch.  Since I needed a straight line across in to re-draft the self-lining, I used the part that I had cut off as my starting point.  Now I have the entire thing on my graphed quilt interfacing I use for the final pattern copy.

comparison 

At this point, what I did was cut it off at the red line. Then I put the facing on top, lining the under part of the arm-scythe up and marked where the facing would end, drawing my line across there.  I then flipped it over after tracing the rest of the pattern and traced the new self facing as one continuous piece.  

I'm sure this could work for knits and non-knits. In fact, you could even split the difference in darts if you wanted.  In wovens and more stable knits I have no qualms with adding a side bust dart. Shaping is always a good thing!

And that's it.  Let me know if you have any questions!  

Ciao Bella and Polka Dots (so many links...)

I'm still plugging away at my Lady Grey coat. Finally have the bodice muslin put together. Tomorrow I will hopefully have on the sleeves and the collar and get some pictures for feedback at the flickr support group.

But I feeling like I'm gonna need a break to do some other sewing soon. I want a polka dot blouse! Its finally starting to cool off here in the Southeast, so longer sleeves are a good idea. I'm thinking a 3/4 sleeve version of my red cowl neck. That was made from a Silhouette Pattern I won at the Sewing Expo last year. I was sort of meh about it, but then decided it would look good with butterfly sleeves so I used this BurdaStyle member's tutorial. So yes, black rayon knit with white polka dots with a 3/4 sleeve will go perfectly with the other thing I've been mulling over. See the high waist trouser over on the right? That's called the Bella and its also from Burdastyle.com.

I kept looking at this pattern and finally broke down and bought it. I am a relatively tall woman with a long waist and what my husband likes to refer to as "ethnic booty" (which I'm sure is not PC at all, but honest he's not being mean!), the fitted pointed back should accentuate that nicely. After browsing through other versions made by members I've decided to give it a whirl. I have a black cotton/lycra denim in my stash that should be enough to make it. I'm gonna turn the pleats into sewn pin tucks and of course I'll need more ease in the hips/waist cause this is a European 46. See all the seams in the waistband? Yeah, that makes it easy to modify, for sure.

Though I may try and tackle the Oscar de la Renta skirt before going for trousers.