I know I need to retire this pattern, and after doing it one last time, I'm sure of that. But the "one last time" was the leftover piece of luxurious Marc Jacobs pink herringbone wool that I used for my Peter & the Wolf pants.
I did a 1" shoulder widening. Otherwise I cut out a size 8 without any adjustments. I initially cut the little collar V smaller, and was considering not doing it at all, but at the last minute I (unfortunately) caved in. I sewed the dress without any problems until I got to that. I got the facings on and then attacked the underneath of the facings and dissected them so thoroughly...that when I turned out the top points of the V, I had totally cut it open at the bottom and it was full of fraying ends. Ugh. Also it seems I've forgotten how to put in a non-invisible zip, and that took a few tries. I was reading through some of Fiona's recent posts and she commented on sewing the zipper from the same direction on both sides instead of sewing up one side and down the other. I am not sure I knew that, and it definitely helped!
But once I got the dress on, it fits so amazingly that I knew I had to salvage that stupid little neckline problem. So I stabilised the loose fabric on the underside with iron on stuff (like Stitch-witchery, but Swiss!), and then I passed the project on to my mother to do some thinking. A lot of her ideas involved lacing, frills, or 1970's style details, which I nixed. But the points of that dumb V were sticking out a lot. I gave it to her to think about while I was in Arizona for a month and this is what she came up with.
I'm still not totally convinced and I did realise I could just cut that entire V shape more and make a new facing to fix it. I'll probably wear this a few times and if I still love it, I'll do that. The centerpiece is ok but it's just off center enough to drive me crazy. This is now version 3 and I think I'm confident that there won't be any more in my near future.
I did a 1" shoulder widening. Otherwise I cut out a size 8 without any adjustments. I initially cut the little collar V smaller, and was considering not doing it at all, but at the last minute I (unfortunately) caved in. I sewed the dress without any problems until I got to that. I got the facings on and then attacked the underneath of the facings and dissected them so thoroughly...that when I turned out the top points of the V, I had totally cut it open at the bottom and it was full of fraying ends. Ugh. Also it seems I've forgotten how to put in a non-invisible zip, and that took a few tries. I was reading through some of Fiona's recent posts and she commented on sewing the zipper from the same direction on both sides instead of sewing up one side and down the other. I am not sure I knew that, and it definitely helped!
But once I got the dress on, it fits so amazingly that I knew I had to salvage that stupid little neckline problem. So I stabilised the loose fabric on the underside with iron on stuff (like Stitch-witchery, but Swiss!), and then I passed the project on to my mother to do some thinking. A lot of her ideas involved lacing, frills, or 1970's style details, which I nixed. But the points of that dumb V were sticking out a lot. I gave it to her to think about while I was in Arizona for a month and this is what she came up with.
I'm still not totally convinced and I did realise I could just cut that entire V shape more and make a new facing to fix it. I'll probably wear this a few times and if I still love it, I'll do that. The centerpiece is ok but it's just off center enough to drive me crazy. This is now version 3 and I think I'm confident that there won't be any more in my near future.
I must say that seems quite creative of your mother! Better than lace, I think.
ReplyDeleteI agree. If you look at it close up it's really well done, but just off-center enough to drive an OCD person crazy...
ReplyDelete