Progress, at last!

Today I figured out why I had stalled - fear of cutting the fashion fabric. Which, of course, is silly.

Having talked myself out of this state of mind, I have cut the fashion fabric and started construction. I decided to line the dress with the lime green muslin I had made, for 2 reasons: the fashion fabric is a light cotton and needed some stability and opaqueness; and I forgot to draft new facings when I altered the pattern.

I am up to inserting the zip - a job best left for another day I've decided. Then I can finish the armholes and hems. If I can keep up today's momentum into the next few evenings, I might be able to wear my new dress to work before the week is out. I just hope this lovely, sunny, warm weather we've had over the weekend holds until the dress is done!

Stalled

Everyone's projects are looking great. I fear I have lost a bit of momentum on my piece. I plan to do some more work on it this afternoon, but I know it won't be finished this month - soon, but not this weekend. Hopefully by early to mid March I'll be posting my finished frock.

As Tim Gunn would say, Carry On!

Slow and steady

I have made some, but not much, progress on my 1970’s dress. Since my last post I have made a few tweaks to the muslin and I am now very happy with it. I am also satisfied that the riding up in the back was from me putting my hands on my hips and not smoothing the skirt down again, rather than a fit issue per se. The lime green lawn I’m using for the muslin is so light I think it clung to my underwear.

Over the next week or so I intend to transfer the markings from the muslin to the (traced) pattern, and then I will use the lime green lawn to underline my dress. Which brings me to my fashion fabric choice: I have decided to go with a cotton print featuring large green and blue flowers. Truth be told, I chose this fabric in part because I already had a long green dress zip in my stash, and also I want to be bolder and more daring in my sewing choices, and this will certainly be bold. I asked Ant Queen for her opinion, and she agreed that it will work in the sleeveless style, but if I had added sleeves it would be a bit over bearing. I am so pleased with this choice, I am already imagining other pieces to make that will go with it, as well as garments already in my wardrobe.

Muslin pics

I finally found time to be pinned in to my dress muslin and take pics yesterday afternoon.  There are a full set over at my blog, but these 2 I think show where I am up to. 

Front of the dress

side view

There were not too many adjustments to be made after all. I took it in by about half an inch at the long side darts and the shoulder seams. I think the fit is fine for a summer dress. I am going to lower the neckline by about 1.5 - 2 inches. I don't find high necklines comfortable, nor do I think they are flattering on me.
I am not sure whether the bunching at the back here is a problem with the pattern/fit, or if bunched it up when I put my hands on my hips for the earlier photos. You can see we only pinned the hem up at the front. I will make the shorter hem adjustments on the pattern before I cut the fashion fabric.

Greetings and salutations

Having signed up as soon as I heard about the sew-along, it has taken me a while to post, but better late than never, right? I have hatched and scratched a few plans for this project and have settled on this Simplicity 7509  from 1970.

A year or more ago a friend helped me to fit a muslin of it, and I never got back to it, so this sew long is the perfect motivation. However, I have lost about a dress size since then, so I will be working on the muslin some more before I upload pics.

I am not 100% decided on fabric yet. I have some lovely royal blue linen that was gifted to me by a friend, but I fear there will not be quite enough. I will try some creative pattern laying laying out, but if I can't make it work I might use a russet red cotton that is in my collection.