The Case of the Pointy Bust!

I've been working away on the strapless bodice and have finally got the under-construction pretty much complete. I need my husband to come home from work (later as per) to help me fit then all should be done. So here is a quick demo/tutorial on how I went about making the bodice.

Following on from my last post here is the put together bodice made from muslin.

Surprisingly the fit actually was pretty good apart from the massive pointy bust area of course! Pretty good going for my first attempt. How to fix the problem...

1. I pinned the excess fabric along the princess seam so it gave a much better fit.

 2. Remove the bodice from the dress form and then mark with chalk along the line of the pins so when you take them out you can see how much material you want to lose.

3. Unpick the seam and cut away the excess fabric remembering to leave a seam allowance mine was 3/8".

Unpicked sides with chalk marks.

Cut away excess leaving 3/8" seam allowance

4. If your not planning on using your pattern again them you can skip this step. If you are then it is important to make the same the same adjustment you made on the muslin to the pattern so you won't have the same pointy bust problem the next time!

I cut away the same size piece as I did on the muslin

5. The fun part! Sew the bodice back together to see if it worked out! The adjustments I made worked out great. I was too lazy to iron the seams which would have made them smoother. Slap wrists for me!

One finished and fitted bodice! Starts to get a little more tricky from here and in the next few posts I will be going into details about how I make the structured bodice including boning, making padded cups and other such fun things!

I hope you find this tutorial helpful and as always all comments and questions are very welcome.

Happy sewing!

On With The Satin Goddess

Finally I have had the time to make the pattern for the Satin Flower Dress! This dress will be one of the most complicated designs I have attempted yet. It has the scary strapless element that needs to somehow defy gravity! What I really do not want is a dress that you have to constantly keep pulling up - no-one wants to wear that! This means that the bodice needs to be very well constructed and fitted to make sure it stays in place.

How am I going to do this you may ask... well the answer is I haven't fully figured that out yet! Its a working progress. What I do know is that I will be using boning for the first time and I will be adding extra support at the bust so it can be worn without a bra. I haven't quite figured out how I am going to do that yet but I'm sure it will all work itself out in the end!

First things first - the pattern. That I can do! To draft the pattern I used the following book, which I do use for most of my pattern construction. Its a great book with excellent and clear instructions on a whole host of designs and garments. Perfect for teaching yourself pattern making - which is what I have used it for.

I made the pattern for a Strapless Princess Bodice which is essentially just adapted from the simple sloper with a few alterations for contouring. I actually forgot to take any pictures of me making the pattern (sorry!), but here is the finished article.

Front pieces for the princess seam. 

Yes I know this is upside down! For some reason every time I try to import into the blog it flips, hopefully you get the general idea. Its not a very exciting pattern piece anyway.

With my pattern finally done I was on a roll and decided to go ahead and test it out on some muslin. So here is it all cut out and ready to sew together.

Look at me being all productive! Next step is to sew this together and if all has gone to plan, which of course it very rarely does, the bodice should fit perfectly! If not stay tuned for some potentially very tricky fitting problems and see how I go about fixing them.

All comments and questions welcome!

Jive Dress in its Full Glory!

As promised here are a few pictures of me in the jive dress I created. If I use it again I will definitely be adding some more bling to make it sparkle a little more. But with the limited time frame this is as far as I got! The only change I made after the dress rehearsal was to add an extra strap across the back to stop the shoulder strap from falling off. I made the strap in nude but realized too late that it wasn't actually the color of my skin. I think I might end up changing the strap to the red color to make it part of the design as it looks a little weird. But hey ho it seemed to work at the time.

I also made a bracelet from some sequin trim I found in JoAnn's to add some sparkle to the other hand.  

The jive routine went well in the end with no major mistakes. Our first performance in public was very nerve racking but has given me a confidence boost and I look forward to our next outing! We are learning the quickstep and tango next so will probably plan on making a full length gown next. Looking forward to that! 

First attempt at a latin ballroom dress

My husband and I are dancing a jive on Saturday in a showcase in Denver and of course I left making a dress to the very last minute!! I like the crossover look and thought I would add a touch of glitter by making one of the front panels a nude material with a glitter netting. I carried this around to the back.

For the waist I added gathers to hide any imperfections and give a slimming look.

I made the skirt asymmetric to allow movement as I have to do a few high kicks. Last minute I decides to add a little of the glitter fabric to the bottom of skirt for balance.

Finally I added a sleeve with an elastic loop to go over my finger to keep it from riding up.

I will post a few more pictures of me wearing it soon.

New Dress: Satin Flower Goddess!

Right onto a new design and here is my next project. Not sure if this is a little risky but I shall try and see what it comes out like! I might end up hating it or loving it - only time will tell!

So I have noticed a lot of textured skirts and dresses recently - mostly of the feather variety but anyhoo - so I thought I would try this trend out for myself and make a truly unique dress. Below is a photo of the fabric I intend to use.

The duchess satin in a cream color is what I am planning for the bodice and the textured flowers in satin for the skirt. I know its a little out there, but you don't know until you try! Here is an extremely quick sketch of the dress I intend to make. The bodice will be strapless or maybe have little straps with a sweetheart neckline. The skirt will be a-line. I haven't used boning before but I really want to add structure to the dress so will be using some in this design.

So what do you think? I would love your thoughts and comments :-) 

Cut Out Paris Dress Taking Shape

So after much deliberation and thanks to all your comments I finally decided on a design to go forward with! Woohoo! The design I have chosen is ..... drum roll please .......... design number 2!! I liked this one because it will be very flattering as the pattern focuses on the waist giving a nice shape and also hiding any lumps and bumps that all us ladies have!

In this post I will go through the next stages of the design process - finalizing the design and making the pattern. Here goes.

STEP 1: First I fiddled around with the two triangles to try and get the right shape and size. I marked the center if the waist on my shift dress so I knew where the point of the triangles had to hit.

This was my final design. At this point I used some colored chalk and marked around the triangles on the black shift dress so  could get a rough idea of where I wanted them.

STEP 2: I removed the dress from the dress form and unpinned the Paris material. Then I unpicked the side I previously basted closed to get something looking like this...

STEP 3: So I had a rough idea of where I wanted the cut out sections to be I just needed to tidy it up a bit. To do this I first measured on the side seam the top of the triangle from the arm holes on both sides and drew a horizontal line between these points. I did the same with the bottom of the triangle making sure both sides where equal and that the two lines were parallel. Then I marked the middle point of each line and drew and straight line through the points.

STEP 4: Now I have a central point to work around. I wanted the tips of the two triangles to be 1" apart at the center. I drew a line parallel to the horizontal line at the level of the center point and marked off 0.5" either side of the vertical line. Then I just connected the dots! Drawing a line from the top of the side seam mark to the tip of the triangle and then the bottom mark to the tip of the triangle.

STEP 5: At this point I needed to add some seam allowances before I cut out the pieces. I usually use 3/8" but you can use whatever you want. I marked 3'8" inside each triangle for my cutting line.

STEP 6: Rinse and repeat for the back! And your ready to cut.

Now for the pattern.

STEP 7: Basically you just need to follow the steps you used to get the cut out triangles on the material. Making the two horizontal lines and marking the center point. You can use the cut out sections to check you have done the pattern right. Remember they will be your seam allowance smaller on every side so don't panic that you have done it wrong!

And that's it!

Hope you found the tutorial useful. You can use this technique for any shape you want so get creative! Would love to hear your thought and comments are always welcome! 

Cut Out Shift Dress Ideas - Please Help Me Decide!!

As I said in my previous post I am very indecisive which I know isn't great for a designer! I should be able to make decisions right?! Well with this shift dress I have a major choice to make - Which design do I like best and want to develop? This is where I need your help.....

I have been furiously pinning the Paris fabric to the shift dress on my dress form in various shapes and sizes to see where I want the cut out sections to be. But turns out this has just made me even more confused! Here are the options....


DESIGN 1: This one is based off the t-shirt I made earlier with two diamond shapes which show round the front and the back. I could alter the position of the diamonds and the size.

DESIGN 2: This one is just a progression of design 1 with the diamonds meeting at the waistline symmetrically.

DESIGN 3: Single asymmetrical band across the waistline in two different widths.

DESIGN 4: Random patches of the material. Might end up changing the shape of them to rectangles of different sizes if I go with this one.

DESIGN 5: With this one I think I would make the section below the waist slightly narrower as it looks unbalanced as it i, but this is the general idea...

DESIGN 6: This is a follow on from the previous design. The top bit will hit the shoulder seam but I ran out of material so you'll have to use your imagination!

DESIGN 7: Asymmetric look again.

DESIGN 8: For this one I broke up the previous design into two different curves. I was getting tired by this point so its quite messy - sorry about that!

DESIGN 9: Final one! For this one I basically did the opposite to design 6.

Phew! That was a lot of designs! I would love any feedback or comments you have to help me decide on which on to go with. Which one is your favorite?