Well, vacation couldn't last forever. So, on Monday, it was back to the Craft Lounge to work on the Project dress.
Before I left for vacation, I set in the sleeves and realized they'd need some work. I didn't realize quite how much until I tried the muslin on again. I must have set the sleeves in 50 times on Monday; it took all day to get right. Initially, I had some pulling in the front (both on the dress/armskye and on the sleeve itself) and a lot of bagging in the back.
I'm not all that experienced with fitting sleeves, and diagnosing the problem(s) was challenging. I'm pretty sure I tried every sleeve alteration out there - rotating, making larger, making smaller, raising the cap, lowering the cap, changing the armskye... Honestly, it was a struggle, but I think the sleeves are now looking pretty good.
This dress is pretty much all about the sleeves, and there were a few unhappy moments when I was thinking that I should give up. Ultimately, I added 1/2 inch to the front of the sleeve, tapering to nothing at the cap/shoulder seam, I made the matching part of the armskye smaller/tighter so there was less pulling across the bust/arm pit area, and, last, I made the back of the sleeve about 3/8 inch smaller tapering to nothing at the cap to get rid of the bagging. After I took this picture I took a teeny tiny tuck on each side of the bodice neckline to tighten it up and stop it from doing that little dip in the front.
Since I added/subtracted nearly the same amount to the front and back of the sleeve, I shouldn't have problems sewing the flower and ruffles on to it. I'll just shift the design to the front a tiny bit.
So, it's on to cutting and sewing the dress, which I am a bit nervous about. I plan to underline the sleeve in organza so that I have a very stable base for the hand stitching and something to transfer the flower pattern to that will not risk marking the outside fabric. Wish me luck!
Before I left for vacation, I set in the sleeves and realized they'd need some work. I didn't realize quite how much until I tried the muslin on again. I must have set the sleeves in 50 times on Monday; it took all day to get right. Initially, I had some pulling in the front (both on the dress/armskye and on the sleeve itself) and a lot of bagging in the back.
I'm not all that experienced with fitting sleeves, and diagnosing the problem(s) was challenging. I'm pretty sure I tried every sleeve alteration out there - rotating, making larger, making smaller, raising the cap, lowering the cap, changing the armskye... Honestly, it was a struggle, but I think the sleeves are now looking pretty good.
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| Hurray!! A vertical grain line! |
This dress is pretty much all about the sleeves, and there were a few unhappy moments when I was thinking that I should give up. Ultimately, I added 1/2 inch to the front of the sleeve, tapering to nothing at the cap/shoulder seam, I made the matching part of the armskye smaller/tighter so there was less pulling across the bust/arm pit area, and, last, I made the back of the sleeve about 3/8 inch smaller tapering to nothing at the cap to get rid of the bagging. After I took this picture I took a teeny tiny tuck on each side of the bodice neckline to tighten it up and stop it from doing that little dip in the front.
Since I added/subtracted nearly the same amount to the front and back of the sleeve, I shouldn't have problems sewing the flower and ruffles on to it. I'll just shift the design to the front a tiny bit.
So, it's on to cutting and sewing the dress, which I am a bit nervous about. I plan to underline the sleeve in organza so that I have a very stable base for the hand stitching and something to transfer the flower pattern to that will not risk marking the outside fabric. Wish me luck!
5 comments:
Your muslin looks great.
Your muslin is in such good shape that your dress is bound to be a home run. Yay!
Ooooh, I do wish you lots of luck! The muslin looks good. I can't see any faults with the sleeves at all.
ooooh pretty pretty!
Good luck!!
Oh, I hate it when sleeves do that! Although so far I've been lucky and only had problems when I really stuffed something up (or was mashing sleeves from a different pattern in, but that's a whole nother issue). So glad you got it figured out!
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