Muslin Vogue 8631

I'm still looking for my perfect evening (but not "After 5/Evening, just going-out-to-dinner evening) dress.  Something that just feels right, with no bra complications.  I don't feel right in a sexy, clingy, jersey dress, I don't look good in a sheath and all my other attempts seem a bit too prim.  After much trawling of my favourite fashion sites, I think this DVF dress has potential (photo from www.dvf.com).

After much deliberation, I purchased Vogue 8631.  It looks like a good place to start, but the version sewn by Vogue is not very flattering at all.  I'm surprised that they even put the picture on their website.

Next step was fitting changes to the pattern.  You know that feeling when you want something so bad, but don't know how to get it.  Well, that's how I feel every time I look at a dress pattern.  I need so many fitting changes to make a dress that the fear of starting is almost insurmountable.  I looked at a lot of diagrams in my fitting book "Fitting & Pattern Alteration" by Leichty, Rasband and Pottberg-Steineckert.  Then I traced the pattern bodice, because it will be almost unrecognisable by the time I am done with it, and took to it with pen and scissors.

Here is the result. 

If anybody has alterations to suggest, now would be a good time to speak up!

Fitting changes before the muslin included
- taking 3 cm length out of the bodice
- square shoulder alteration, using the seam method
- forward shoulder alteration, using the seam method, which shifts the seam back to the centre of the arm after the shoulder point
- increased width at the waist on both the bodice and skirt
- shaping the waist seam on the skirt to allow extra length over the hips and bum
- removing 10cm length from the bront of the skirt and 7 cm from the back (not sure why there was so much difference from front to back...I'll need to check this before I cut)

I'm surprised at the length changes, given that I am 167 cm tall, which is only 1 cm shorter than the height given on pattern measurement charts.

After making the muslin, I will probably do the following fitting changes
- narrow chest alteration
- I need to adress the pulling wrinkles at the front of the shoulder bone, but I am not sure how to do this...perhaps increase the square shoulder on the front bodice but not the back bodice?
- increase the width of the kimono sleeve.  I lost some width with the other fitting alterations, but I need to put this back.
- increase the length of the sleeve and add a sleeve band, to give more of a slouchy look and less of the eighties' drop-shoulder look.

Then comes the fun bit...choosing fabric.  At the moment I am thinking of this silk/rayon burnout from Tessuti, although it will need a slip underneath.

Happy Birthday to ......

... Bernice, of Raindrops and Bellyflops.

I made you a present, but of course I haven't posted it.  I have, however, popped it up here, knowing that you are my blog's biggest fan, and you will at least see it on your birthday.

I had a hard time choosing the fabrics.  In the end I went with a Tessuti Japanese cotton for the flap, some vintage Sheridan home decor fabric for the front, a navy corded silk for the back and centre strip and a navy linen for the lining.

I reckon it'll go nicely with jeans, with all those navy bits.

It's much too hot

My children have a story book, "It's much too hot".  I find myself repeating this line at least a dozen times a day.  I need a hat to walk 3m from my car to a building.  I carry emergency water and rations just to pick my kids up from school.  I'm regretting not sewing all those summer blouses.  I have been most busy this week, but yesterday, I asked everybody to leave me alone for a while so that I could stitch together a few pieces of cotton voile.  Here is the result.

 

Just looking at that picture makes me feel a few degrees cooler :-)

My inspiration piece was a Paul & Joe top, torn from a magazine.  It has been filed away so long that it was actually different to what I had remembered.

I was going to bodgy my own bat-wing pattern, but decided to rifle through my pattern collection in case I had one stashed away and forgotten about.  I found an Anna Sui pattern, Vogue 2947, which I had previously sewn for my Mum.  Not exactly the same as the Paul & Joe top, but the same sorta feel.  The bat-wings ended up smaller than I remember, but that is probably because I tried on the one I made previously, which was a bigger size.  I omitted the contrast trim on the neck-line, because I had contrast shoulders.  Other reviewers have used a facing instead of a trim, but I just turned in a narrow hem.  I stitched up the centre-front a bit of a ways, so that I would not need a camisole underneath.

Check out the price tag on that Paul & Joe top.  $595!!! must be silk???  Mine is cotton.  The green swan print voile is from EmmaOneSock and the blue daisy voile is from a discount place on the Sunshine Coast (the name of the place escapes me but it is on route from Noosa Beach to Cooroy).  Peter is wondering why I didn't use matching fabrics.  I guess taste will always be individual!