And Something New...

So, back to my dress dilemma. Thanks to those of you who commented - very helpful!

By Friday afternoon I found myself inexplicably buying seersucker at AK Fabrics. I don't think this will be dressy enough for the wedding, but it was such a good idea from Kimbersew that, well, I just have to have this dress in seersucker. So, I may end up making two versions. If I don't finish in time for the wedding, well, I do have a back up LBD in the closet that I can always wear.

The dress is to be fully lined, and the inexpensive batiste I bought last week will be perfect for lining seersucker. So, I decided to use the batiste lining as my muslin. I know that some may tsk tsk at me for attempting the "wearable muslin". But at $2 a yard, I have no qualms about this being just a muslin - I'll re-cut pieces as necessary. 

Over the weekend, I worked on the pattern (lengthening the bodice and the skirt each by one inch), cut the batiste and transferred all the markings. Last night, I stitched up muslin 1.0 and tried it on. Usually I have to do a whole lot of fitting to make a bottom work, but the bottom of this dress fit perfectly. The top is a different story.

The front looks ok in the photo (aside from the puckers where I was not so careful about easing), but in real life it desperately needs an FBA - the two cups are not even close to big enough for my bust. So, the dress sort of stands away from my body rather than draping over my curves. I was hoping that I would be able to just make the seam down the middle of the cup pieces smaller to make more bust room, but I don't think that will be enough. I'm going to have to make the cups larger and the bodice piece they attach to will need larger spaces for them. Also, I lengthened the straps a bit in this view, but am rethinking this - once the lining is in, this dress will be 5/8" lower cut than now. And, while I like a pretty décolleté, that would make the dress awfully low cut.Where it hits on the unfinished muslin, I think is perfect.

The back has a few easy-to-fix problems, like letting out the side or princess seams a little so it doesn't pull across the back waist. Also, you can't see it so well, but apparently I have narrow shoulders and there is quite a lot of extra fabric in the upper back. There was a pretty straightforward alteration for this in Fit For Real People, so this should also not be a problem.

Anyway, stay tuned for muslin 1.1 with adjusted bust and back.