Sharon Sews

Yesterday I mentioned that I did a small FBA when sewing the lilac version of this dress, Vogue 1250. While the dress already has a lot of ease in the bust area, I felt a small FBA would help keep the look a bit more true to the original design on my figure.  "But there's no dart on the dress!" Yea, that always used to throw me too.  But after doing about a gazillion* FBAs I'm much braver about slicing and dicing. ( * a bit of an exaggeration as I've only been doing FBAs for about 10 years ). Keep in mind that this may or may not be the "correct" way to do this, it's just the way I did it. How I did the FBA I cut the bottom portion of the dress off just below the shorten and lengthen line and set it aside. That way I was only working on the bodice portion of the dress. I drew a dot on the pattern piece at approximately the bust apex. Next I drew in lines for a dart - one to the armhole just above the dot and one to the side seam.

Once upon a time, a long time ago... Okay, it wasn't that long ago. It was only this past April. So let's begin again. Once upon a time, a few months ago, I sewed two versions of Vogue 1250 . The first one was sewn from this lovely bold print (from SR Harris of course). I thought the fabric would be perfect as the dress had few seams allowing the bold print to show off. Alas, I was less than thrilled with the result. "But" I thought "maybe it wasn't the fabric at all, but the fit!" So I did a small FBA on the bodice pattern And sewed a second one. In a lovely lilac knit (also from SR Harris)  "Hmmm" I thought, "better, but I'm still not sure. Maybe it just needs a little tweaking."  So tweak it I did. Two plus months later. On the lilac dress I removed some of the excess fabric on the lower back bodice and took in the side seams in a smidge. And now I like it. Ahhh. I love stories with a happ

Here it is - the completed striped knit top from McCall's 6356 .  It's going to be a great casual top to toss on with jeans. I can also pair it with a long skirt for a more "artsy" look.  A bit out of my comfort zone but doable.  By the way, the skirt is a black linen Sewing Workshop Lotus skirt I sewed about ten years ago.  The top can also be paired with simple black pants on those summer days at the office when I'm looking for something quick, simple and casual. I talked a lot about the construction process yesterday, in this post . However there are a few more things I'd like to mention. First of all, the diagonal upper front drape is created with two upper front pieces; the upper one is gathered and the inside one is the stay.  Both pieces are basted together and then sewn to the lower front in that diagonal seam creating that great draping. Fabric.   Gwen made a comment on the previous post about needing a lightweight fabric because

A knit top is almost done - McCall's 6356 - view B sewn from a soft striped cotton/poly jersey knit. A few thoughts on the pattern. The sides of the top are insanely long before being ruched.  Just look at the length of this back pattern piece. See? Before the elastic is sewn to the side seams the top is long enough to be worn as a dress - or tunic if you're not too sure about baring that much leg. The pattern instructions tell you to sew the side seams in a double stitched seam. No problem, that's what I did.  Using a very narrow zig-zag stitch (0.5 mm width, 3.0 mm length) to give the seam some room to stretch. Don't add the elastic per the instructions - which are to sew through the center of the elastic stretching as you sew.  Well, you can do this if you want to, but I tried it on this top , but discovered that a small casing produces a nicer look. And it's easier to do. Now the elastic alone won't create those side gathers on its own. As y