I’ve been following along the Sew Colette sew-along but this is the first time I’ve sewn along. I ended up using a quilting cotton, not my first choice but limited as I am to mostly quick trips to Spotlight, it was the only thing I could find with a print I liked and didn’t
I have been reading and learning all I can about fitting issues and like many I had to adjust the darts on this pattern. I also did my usual adjustments, of which I am getting better at as I get to know my own body and its unique characteristics.
My fitting changes were:
- Moved and lengthened bust darts
- Moved and reshaped bodice darts using Gertie’s tutorial as a guide (and thanks to Sewing Princess who pointed me in the right direction – very useful dart shape for smaller busted ladies).
- Lengthened back darts
- Did a slice and pivot adjustment of the back neck dart, to take out excess fabric from the back neck. It worked like a dream. Basically, I sliced down the back neck dart to the top of the waist back dart. Then I sliced up one side of the back waist dart to open up the waist dart. Then I rotated the back neck in from the shoulder about the same width as the neck dart. Taped. Redrew darts into original position. To my shock: perfect fit in the back. It was basically the same as doing a double the width of the neck dart. My terminology is probably all wrong but hopefully, this may help someone. I was inspired to do this by this post at Bernie and I
. I thought I would try it for the back and it did work for me although I did pivot in from the shoulder not from the centre back so that the centre back lineremain unchanged. I usually need to do a narrow shoulder adjustment I think this kinda achieved that as well so perhaps this adjustment might not work for other body types. - Did a sloping and forward shoulder adjustment on shoulder seams and sleeve. I also added a smidge to the sleeve cap height.
- Changed waist gathers to two small pleats.
- Smoothed out “bottom” curve at centre back skirt as I didn’t need it (not enough booty I guess)
- Lengthened the skirt (just cut an 18 in length)
- I cut a 0 in the shoulders and tapered out to a 4 in the waist and cut a 6 in the skirt.
My changes to construction were:
- I sewed the front bodice and skirt together, then the back bodice and skirt together, then sewed up the side seams in one long seam. This is because I am still losing baby weight and I wanted to be able to easily adjust the dress if I need to. My side seams ended up being 2cm wide (3/4″).
- Installed a lapped zip (my first)
- Set in the sleeves flat before I sewed up the side seams.
Cool stuff I learnt:
- That I have a forward shoulder and how to adjust for it. I now can get rid of those vertical wrinkles I was getting at the back of my sleeve. My back fits much better after this adjustment.
- Lapped zippers look really nice.
- Instead of doing a complicated narrow shoulder adjustment, I just need to cut a smaller size.
- And as always, the seam ripper remains my best friend.
