Bridesmaid dress V1.0 - Butterick

I decided it was worth a try to make the birdesmaid dresses. Hey, if I'm going to sew my wedding dress, how hard can it be to sew a few more? Yes I know, you're all telling me I'm crazy - and I'm ready to accept defeat if the muslins don't work. But I think this is worth I try.

After some discussion, we decided to start with a Butterick pattern that is remarkably similar to a J.Crew dress.



I quickly sewed up a muslin in a size 10 for Emily to try. Note that the fabric I am using for the mock-up is very thin (the real thing will be much better quality) and I adjusted the seam allowances in the bodice so that it will be easy to alter the fit. That's why the mid-section has extra fabric that you can see protruding half way down on the inside of the dress. The final version will be fully lined, so no need to worry about that sort of thing.

Here I am modelling it (thank you Matt for taking the pictures!! Not that he is allowed to read this blog...):



So far I'm hopeful!
First fitting tomorrow.
Stay tuned!

Vogue 2788 - Version 2.0

After lots of measuring and drawing and calculating and re-measuring and re-drawing I finally finished altering the pattern pieces for the bodice of Vogue 2788. The main changes I made were to narrow the shoulders and raise the back neckline. Here are some pictures of the bodice attached to the old skirt, modeled by my dressform.

Having tried the dress of myself, I noticed that the dressform is a bit bigger than me, which makes sense since we wrapped the duct tape over the top of me. Though, I didn't expect it to make such a noticeable difference. Nonetheless, it is close enough in size to be very helpful for fitting.

Duct tape dressform

Matt helped me build my very own dressform out of duct tape! I had seen tutorials online (e.g. threads) and decided to give it a try. Here are some pictures of the process.

To mount the dressform, I bought some lumber and Matt built a stand. I think he did an amazingly professional job.

Vogue 2788 - Version 1.1

I finally got around to adding the zipper ot Vogue 2788 and trying it on with a petticoat underneath and realised that it was rather wide in the waist and hips which gave it that slight maternity-dress look. So, I took in the side-seams 2cm on each side. Below is a video showing the result. I think the skirt could be even a little less full, especially around the hips - so might work on that a little more.

The main area that needs a lot of work on this dress is the bodice at the neck and back. The shoulders are too wide (you can see one side a dart has been basted to take away some of the width) and the back too wide. I'm also not sure about having the back so low - my shoulder blades look ridiculous! Plus it'll be cold.

Note that because the petticoat starts well below the end of the bodice, you can see a colour contrast where there is no lining and no petticoat. Next version will have an integrated lining/petticoat to solve that problem.

Simplcity 5440

I finally finished and photographed Simplicity 5440, thanks to Jonathan who is visiting this weekend on his way home to Sydney.

I'm not sure I like the shape - it seems a bit too 80s. The puffy sleeve is certainly not me (though that is relatively easy to fix). However, in general, I don't know about the long bodice.

The one thing that is great is the shoulder/neck line. I might use this to adapt the Vogue pattern to fit my shoulders better.

Vogue V2788 - Version 1.0

With a week of vacation before starting my job, I decided to sew up a musin of the Vogue pattern mainly to convince myself that sewing my own dress was not crazy (as many friends/family had led me to believe).

Here is a photo of me wearing the result. I only made one sleeve because I'm not too keen on the sleeve shape and will re-jig it before attempting the second.

Wedding dress patterns

After much googling, I selected three patterns to order. My criteria were: must have sleeves (with I'll lengthen to 3/4), A-line shape and not too big in the skirt.

First a current simplicity pattern from their retro-look line (4259). This is my least favourtie, though I do like the neck line on the left version.


















Second, a 1980s Simplicty pattern (5440). The fabric that was chosen here is not my cup of tea. However, I do like the shape.















Finally, a current vogue (V2788). I like the back of the bodice on this one - it's a little more interesting than the others. Though, I'm not sure about the sleeves.
















I started on the Vogue pattern. See the next post for my muslin version.