The Mission Impossible Missoni Frock

After much procrastination and angsting, I finally cut into the Missoni fabric on Thursday to make my dress. For Friday.  I am nothing if not predictable in my last-minute ways.  Unfortunately the cutting was disastrous.  I thought it would be easier to cut on the fold so I painstakely matched all the zig-zags up the side seam, but when I unfolded it must have been off grain as the curves on the left side bared little resemblence to the curves on the right.  So I had to true up the sides, which inevitablely threw off the zig-zag matching.

And never the twain shall meet.  The loose-weave sweater knit was also so unlike any fabric I've ever sewn (or ever will again to be honest) that it needed mahoosive fitting adjustments. Three times I had to take it in and all the curves that followed my measurements turned out to be unneccessary.  That'll teach me to make my muslin out of basically a polar opposite fabric*.  In all seriousness, though, 97% of party-goers would not have noticed the abysmmal pattern matching.  I must learn to accept compliments graciously rather than saying things like 'But just look at how the zig-zags are so unmatched!'**.

I kept the natural zig-zag edging at the bottom after tidying up all of the dangling yarn tails. 

And here is my supremely handsome husband.  The End.


*It probably won't.
** I probably won't.

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The Stripey Missoni Muslin

It's down to the wire here, with only three sewing sleeps until the soirree and I'm still swithering about cutting into my Missoni fabric.  The first draft and mock-up over the weekend was, shall we say... less than successful.  Which is a particular shame as I used the fabric I intended for the lining fabric.

Most of the fitting issues from the never-to-be-shared muslin one were through the upper bust and arms.  The dolman sleeves were too tight and pulled the neckline wider than it should have been, baring my bra straps.  And my shoulders. 

It was also too tight across my hips and upper thighs so I added some extra ease.  Version one went straight down from my hips; stripey version two tapers a little bit.

The side view is still causing me angst as the bosoms are being smashed pretty flat.  I am hoping that this is because the stripey fabric has very little stretch to it.  It also feels kind of nasty, in case you're wondering.  I suspect it's acrylic.

And finally with a belt, because if I do make the Missoni, it'll probably be belted.  And at least three inches longer.  Muslin one was not this hootchy, I'm blaming the fabric again.

Proceed with caution or mission: abort?

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The unintended consequences of being tidy

I had an epic five hour cull / clean / organise of our bedroom today and look what I found under the bed!

Before you think I am so rich and privileged that I could forgot I had genuine Missoni fabric under the bed, it was in a vacuum pack. After coveting it hardcore over a long period of time, when a discount code popped up last summer I bought it right up.  It should have been about £35 a metre! Of course, about two days after buying this spendy fabric Missoni collaborated with Target and I felt marginally jaded.  Day-dreams of people thinking that I was wearing a designer dress were replaced with thoughts of people thinking I was wearing a Target dress.  Which is absolutely fine, before anyone says 'Hey you jerk, I wear Target dresses.' It just didn't tally with my year-long covetfest.  So half through petulance and half through not knowing what to do with it, I stashed it away safely.

But just look at those pretty colours.  I can't stay mad at those zigzags. Or that selvage (although I reserve the right to get mad if I attempt to keep them and have to hand-sew them to massively tidy them up). 

And now we have a Plan C* for the party (in six sewing sleeps), and that is to use the Missoni for something simple and sheathy like this:

Source Pinterest

It's a sweater knit with enough stretch that I shouldn't have to resort to zippers, but the weave is loose enough that it should probably be lined.

Today's burning question:  Best plan ever or waste of semi-precious horded fabric?
Bonus points: If I had this fabric I would ___________.

*Plan A: make a Macaronesque dress, Plan B was the much less stupid 'wear one I already have'

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If Darwin was alive today he'd probably write about this evolution

Holy moly, guys... I only made the final four in the Spring Top Sewalong! I totally wasn't expecting that. I don't want to totally spam my blog talking about this top ALL OF THE TIME, but please forgive a tiny bit more navel gazing... The Train To Crazy mentioned on Twitter that it might be interesting to post the Evolution of The Never-ending Dress Quest (which culminated with the Spring Top) so here goes:

It all started with this Jamie dress, straight off the printer with no alterations:

After rotating the straps to vertical and removing most of the gathers along the neckline, I had this:


Then I removed all of the elastication from the neckline and lowered it heaps:


I didn't like the gathers, so I draped it to form darts. I also made it a v-neck instead of a scoop neck:


For my final(ish) dress I took it in as far as my body would allow without asphyxiating. I then failed to take proper pictures:


Don't worry this one is pretty much identical:


And, finally, I made it into a top with a lot more ease and greater neckline modesty:


So there we go then. Go forth and cast your votes! The other tops are fantastic so it's a real privilege being a finalist :)

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The 'If It Ain't Broke' Top

Well, colour you all shocked to see another incarnation of the Never-Ending Dress. Wouldn't it be funny if I sign up for every sew-along going and adapt this pattern for it? Next thing you know, I'll be signing up to an Overall Sew-along and throwing some legs on it.

A picture for those of you of the head persuasion. Nothing shocking and / or amusing is happening to my right, I promise. I'm just a little bit harrowed from sewing this blouse manic style on the deadline day. Too harrowed for make-up and hairbrushes. Let's see... changes from Never-ending Dress: it is not a dress (obviously), neckline raised a bit, straps shortened / narrowed a smidge, fabric has no stretch so ease added all over the place, and waistband given a curve at centre front under the bust. Some things have remained: Mega-darted bodice front (three below each breast, one to the side *sigh*), v-neck back bodice, smooshed waistband, and.....................

That's right, I zipped it all the way through this time! I'm hoping the metal zip tones down the OMGGirly print. But refrains from burning me when it's hot.

Spring Top Sew-along, forty minutes to spare :)

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Final dress wasn't final. It was Penultimate.

Steven said: Look benign.

I totally tricked you guys. Final dress from last week wasn't final at all. We had another wedding yesterday and I made another dress to celebrate the busiest my social life had been in eight years. I made the dress in the morning and finished two hours before we needed to leave. This isn't advisable.

Yes: fitting issues. No: don't care.

I made a deep V to the back bodice, and moved the zipper round from the side to the back. And exposed the zipper (yes, Crafterhours, it is a thing). The zipper was very nearly long enough to zip the whole thing through.

New camera isn't sure what to do with my fake tan.

Steven looked so handsome tourists took pictures with him. True story.

Not a tourist. That's me.

And we got a night out without small people cramping our style.

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Final dress is Final. Accessories are lacking and vital.

Who would have believed it? I finished my final dress two days before I needed to. This has never happened before. Apologies for the abyssmal photo quality, I had to take these with my phone as Steven has taken the kids and the camera to the Science Festival.


It's just as well I wasn't still working at midnight on Friday because after it was basted together I found I still had a World of Fitting Issues. Because this print is so big and I didn't want to break it up, I changed the skirt from princess seamed to darted one (without any pattern for guidance) so the skirt needed adjustments galore. And I had to take the waistband in five (!) inches at the bottom corner.


The skirt is a tiny bit shorter in the back because I had to take a last minute wedge out where it met the waistband due to my extreme swayback.


I love the shoulders so much.


My original plan was to have a contrasting waistband so I picked a fabric that was a perfect match to the plummy pink of half the flowers. But when the fabrics were together it didn't match the plum pink as much as it clashed with the rose pink (if that makes sense to anyone other than me!)....

The reason Steven and the kids have given me a bit of peace today is because I still need shoes / bag / accessories. So, lovely readers.... would you go with black, plum pink, rose pink, or the green of the leaves?

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The Home Stretch Dress

It's impossible to try on just a bodice and pin to fit so I reckoned I should finish the leopard dress in it's entirety. You know, so the 4000 people that ragged on me about the print could have another day of glee. I'm benevolent like that.

I'm not looking smug here, promise. I'm smiling at my old school friend, Nashira, who complained on Facebook about me always cropping my head out. Here is my head: be kind with it.

The canny amonst you will have noticed that I'm trying out a pencil skirt instead of a circle skirt. There's some extra fabric at centre front that's pooling out, but other than that the fit is pretty good.

The back shows no glaring fit issues.

Kat ever so kindly expressed her concern yesterday that the boobies would eat her up. I'm hoping it looks less threatening on me than on Doppelganger. If you saw this bodice at a wedding, would you be scared for your life?

And finally, here is it belted. Trying this out has shown me that the waist and hips need to come in another inch or so because the fabric is bunching. Finding and fitting my natural waist is proving tricksy.

So, do you like it? Gilberto on Flickr does. Isn't he dashing in his field?


I'd appreciate your insight on Final Dress...

• Are breasts threatening?
  
• Circle skirt and petticoat or pencil skirt?
• Contrasting waistband or same waistband?
  
• Bonus question for experts: The v-neck is standing up off my chest and not adhering to my curve (particularly at centre front) so that the 65% of people who are taller than me can see my bra no matter what... how do I fix this other than add a dart along neckline?
  

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Eeny, meeny, miney, mo. Catch a leopard.... Whatever.

It'll surprise no one that I'm persevering with the dress. Thank you all for your suggestions and support, you guys rock!

All these animal prints in my stash must be giving everyone the wrong impression of me... I've never worn an animal print in me puff. Honestly.

For those of you interested in the process (the process that I'm more-or-less winging I might add before people start threads on sewing forums that I'm doing it all wrong), I made some changes to the bodice piece and pinned a fabric version to my last dress. The height at centre front of previous dresses was bothering me but as I always wear balconette bras there wasn't much I could do... so I bought a plunge bra and the doppelganger is wearing this. That's a handy hint from me to you: if you have a dress form, make it wear the bra you will wear with the dress. Even if it looks like a hussy and you want to judge it. It's much easier to gauge necklines and armholes if she's wearing your bra. So I changed it to a v-neck. And the under-bust gathers that were irritating me? I folded it into three under bust darts. Underbust darts always leads to a side seam dart for me too. Then is pressed the darts with the iron, fabric penned everything and made another pattern from it.

Then I stitched up the new bodice front with the darts to check the fit. I still didn't like the neckline so I played around a bit more with that. Made another pattern from that, adjusted the back bodice and straps pieces to compensate (oh dear god this process is killing me) ... and then tried it with the leopard print. Leopard print because the silk dupioni is out. I settled on a busy print for Final!Dress in the end. Et voila.

You do not even see those threads hanging down.

The underbust darts are looking pretty snazzy, the v-neck covers my bra (only just though so I might add a tiny bit back on) and the straps start much lower down. The waistband needs work. I don't know what to do with it but it is not conforming to the body. Perhaps it doesn't matter so much with a print?

Overall, I think it's a lot sleeker than the previous dresses methinks. What say you, hive mind?

EDITED TO ADD: I'm not planning on wearing leopard-print dress. It's a muslin before my final fabric comes tomorrow. Now everyone can stop tormenting me.

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Three times a lady

I know, all these dress revisions are getting tedious. If it's any consolation, it's tedious for me too.

Skirt has been increased from the half circle of the zebra dress to a three-quarter circle. It's gigantic. It is very bulk-inducing at the back, but that's probably partially the fault of the fabric being velveteen.

But we're not going to dwell on that because, 'Look, Mom!! No bra strap!!' Finally.

One of the things that bugged me about the zebra dress was the elastication at the neckline. I've no beef with elastic necklines in general, but I'm wanting a formal dress at the end of this whole ordeal and I think the elastic made it less so. More changes were made to the bodice front piece (including unplanned changes after I thought it was done- that'll teach me not to fit as I go along) to eliminate the elastic. As you can see by my serving wench bosom, I lowered the neckline to the borderline disgraceful. If I make another one, it's coming back up a smidge.

As Angie and Pickled Weasel suggested, I increased the height of the waistband an inch and a half to counter the (entirely true) assertion that I looked short waisted. I 'formalised' the waistband and shoulder straps with more regular pleats than the random 'smooshing' that the original pattern called for. I don't even know why I'm pretending that this dress even bears any resemblence to the pattern anymore.

Even Jamie doesn't know what I should do.

There we go then. Other than a couple of small changes, I've tamed all the original fitting problems that bothered me and I think I've gotten to the point where I could move on to a final version. But I can't decide if I want to.... Something just looks 'meh' to me.

Potential reasons for meh:

• Just the fabric (again- stashbusting). For Final!Dress I want to use crisp silk dupion. Will this make everything better? Does such fabric lend itself to half skirt or three quarter circle?
  
• Long-standing resentment towards under bust gathers: do these always make boobs look dumpy?
  
• Strap angst: should I change them just to normal ones? do they start too high up?
• Proximity to armpit: awfully close to armpit vs showing bra at armpit. Discuss.
• My monkey: as explained yesterday.
  

Do I soldier on or should I just bask in the fact I have learned a lot about fit adjustments?

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Disheartened Zebra is disheartened

Introducing.... version two of the Sis Boom Jamie dress.

Things not to judge me for:

1. Making a zebra print dress. It's been in my stash for 37 years and it's wide enough for a half-circle skirt.
2. Wearing red tights. I already had them on today, and couldn't be arsed changing them.
3. Lack of blog posts. It's Virgin Media again and three nights in a row with the internet shut off at 7PM.
4. Whining. My prerogative.

I'm not even sure I can call it a Sis Boom Jamie dress anymore because of all the changes I made to the pattern. Jennifer Paganelli, do not even sue me for copyright infringement or misrepresentation or even defamation, it won't be worth your time and court costs.

I will start with the back... I extended the sash from the original party at the front to party all around, and still maintained the pleats. Pinning Version: Awkward in Pink to my doppelganger (who was helpfully wearing my bra) made me realise that the elastication was not necessary in the back, so there is no elastic at all. Straps were rotated to vertical, armhole given a deeper curve. Despite manifold changes, my bra strap still shows. I HATE YOU, BRA STRAP.

'Oh, bodice', the matron sighed as a single tear ran down her cheek, 'you had so much promise...'

I made so many changes to the bodice I'll probably need to start up a whole 'nother blog just to talk about it. To summarise: I moved the strap so it came out vertically (and shortened the straps three inches), scooped out a bit at armpit, made it slightly scooped neck rather than straight across (and switched to 1/4" elastic to follow the curve better), added some fullness under the bust for a bit of height / to cover my bra, and decreased the height at centre front bottom* to eliminate the pooling. Here's a under-appreciated camera move:

Below the boob looking up...

So great was my desire not to bulk up my centre front and present the world with Mono-Boob, I moved all of the gathers under bust. This was probably over-vigilance.

The skirt was changed from a gathered skirt to a half circle skirt. I did some late-night mathematics to draft 3/4" circle and full circle patterns as well**. Mr Dorset, if you're reading this: 'You were right, I totally still use geometry and algebra when I'm older'. Skirt is not hemmed yet.

The verdict? Meh.

• The Good: Waistband gets a thumbs up
• The Bad: Bodice still looks ultra-matronly to me (I know, zebra stripes + bosom shelf = bad idea)
• The Divisive: On one hand, I like the fullness. On the other hand, drapes cause bulk to stomach region. Although not having to worry about posture and support undergarments is appealing, I would also like to look thin because 30 Day Shred will render me so in about 13 days.
  

What say you?

* Pickled Weasel, I await your joke about centre front bottom.
**Thank you, KID MD, for your awesome tutorials on half, three quarters and full circle skirts!

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