FITTING: By Hand London 'Anna' muslin/toile with sway back adjustment, neck darts & repositioned side seam (part 4).

By now I am sure you are sick to death of my posts and tweets on this topic. I am a woman possessed!! Just make the fucking thing already, right?

Well, now I can!!! I finally got the fit right on my muslin.

After making what felt like two hundred adjustments, the Anna dress is ready to be made up in my beautiful floral cotton voile.

After I did the erect back/short back and shoulder seam adjustments the waistline was still dipping and there was some gaping at the front neck.

I ended up doing a 2.5cm sway back adjustment and took 4cm wedges out of the neck.

As you can see, the neck fit better, the waist was level, but the side seams were still swinging forward. 

I was going to ignore the swinging side seam, but I realised that it would probably affect the way the front of skirt sits on my body, forcing the skirt side seam to swing forward, creating some weird bump... so off to Google I went and I found this:

SOURCE

I think instructions "add/subtract twice (abc)" mean you add/subtract on both left and right (ie twice) because they were repositioning the side seams on a sloper whereas I repositioned the side seams on my pattern piece so I didn't add/subtract (abc) amount twice.

I also repositioned the skirt side seams so the bodice and skirt side seams will match up.

The erect back adjustment of 3cm lowered my back neckline, so I added 2cm back into the CB and neckline. Maybe the erect back adjustment wasn't needed?

 So now, I present to you the muslin that has consumed the last fortnight of my life...

Side seam: before and after. I've have since added 2cm to the front bodice length.

Bodice caving in at the top

No more gaping.

There are also some wrinkles on the back and under the arms, but I can't be fucked making another muslin take on another issue right now so I'll turn a blind eye. The wrinkles don't bother me that much.

I have already cut out my floral cotton voile and plan on sewing it this Saturday to wear to a 30th birthday party and a housewarming (both on Sunday). If the wrinkles on this floral version bother me, then I will make more adjustments so that the rayon version I plan to make for my friend's wedding will be perfect. 

Even though it was a frustrating and long winded process, I have to say I enjoyed the challenge. I have learnt a lot of things about my body. Hopefully the next pattern I make (probably Georgia, for the sewalong) won't be as difficult, as I now now what my body issues are and how to fix them.

Speaking of the Georgia Sewalong, I believe that is happening this weekend! Yayyyyy! Who's in???

So now that my fitting dramas with Anna are over, what will I tweet about now? Hahahhaha. 

Thank you every one for your advice, for emailing and linking me to tutorials, for diagnosing my 'issues', for encouraging me and for putting up with the hundreds of #annadress #fittingwoes tweets (especially those followers that DGAF about sewing... who would never read this blog to see this, anyway).

I leave you with a pretty picture of my floral cotton voile, a 22" American Beauty invisible zipper and thread #733.

Happy Australia Day long weekend :)

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Finished Project & Pattern Review: Vintage Simplicity 3222 Wiggle Dress with Self-Fabric Cummerbund.

My beautiful vintage style floral dress with wiggle skirt, notched collar, raglan sleeves and cummerbund is complete. The finished garment is so gorgeous, the only thing that would make it even better is if it were lined.

This dress was my sewing project for Term 2 at my weekly dressmaking class. I made it using the floral cotton sateen I got on sale at Spotty for $3/m (rrp $16/m). I used the leftover fabric to make my floral V8511.

From cutting to sewing the hook and bar on the cummerbund took 7 sewing lessons (14 hours).

Vintage Floral Wiggle Dress with Self-Fabric Cummerbund.

I sew very slowly at sewing class, keep it relaxing and social. I like to wander around and chat to the other ladies and see what wonderful garments they are making.

The hardest part of putting this dress together was the facing. The notched collar made it incredibly tricky, I left it to my sewing teacher to pin it up for me. The mistake I made last time with my hot pink version was pinning it all together at once, sewing it, and ended up with some bumps.

If I had bothered reading the instructions, it says to pin the sides of the facings first, sew, the pin the centre facing and it all matches up – no bumps.

The raglan sleeves were surprisingly easy. If anyone is thinking about trying a pattern with raglan sleeves, I strongly encourage it, it’s super easy.

Beautiful notched collar.

The bust size (32”) is larger than my measurement, so it doesn't fit as snug as I would like, nothing a good push up bra can’t fix, right?  

I learnt that bust adjustments (to make smaller) can’t be made on bodice patterns with darts. That’s discrimination. No fair!! If I make this pattern again, I may research how to transform the bodice to a princess seam and take it in that way next time.

I also learnt that I have a sway-back. My teacher made the sway back adjustment for me. I think she shortened the back bodice.

Slim, wiggle skirt with soft pleats at the front.
Skirt vent (back).

I cut the whole pattern as per original size, with some minor adjustments: Skirt shortened, 4cm added to the waist, 7cm added to the cummerbund. The women of the 60s were so small-waisted!

The cummerbund: I love it!!! The cummerbund was cut on a bias, gathered, boned, hem finished with hemming tape, hooks and bars hand sewed on.

This was my first time working with boning. I used polyboning which was easy to use. It was simply pinned on the cummerbund then sewed on both sides.

Polyboning.

Hand sewed the hooks.

Hand sewed the bars.

Gathered and boned. Hehe.

Hem finished with hemming tape.

I hand sewed the sleeves and hem, and of course the hook/bars on the cummerbund. I dreaded sewing the hooks/bars. I don’t have a lot of patience and hand sewing seems so tedious, but it’s actually quite relaxing. It took one hour to sew 3 pairs of hooks/bars.

Pattern Review: Vintage Simplicity 3222, View 2, slim wiggle skirt and self-fabric cummerbund, no bows

Size: 12, Bust 32”  

Fabric: 2m floral cotton sateen

Notions: Invisible zipper (black) 22", Gutermann thread (000), 25cm polyboning, 60cm whisperweft interfacing, hooks/bars

Time: 7 sewing classes (14 hours)
Cost: $40ish – pattern $20, fabric $6 (on sale!), zip $4, polyboning $1, whisperweft interfacing $6, hooks/bars $4

Techniques used: 

•  Understitching
•  Tailors tacks
•  Invisible hem
•  Bias cut (cummerbund)

Adjustments:

• Added 4cm to waist
• Added 7cm to cummerbund
• Shortened skirt
• Sway back

This dress fits perfectly everywhere but the chest, it gapes because it's too big. If I stand straight, it's fine though.

I love the length! 

The cummerbund gives the dress a nice silhouette, pulls it in at the waist and gives gorgeous gathered detail. Without the cummerbund, it looks kind of bland so I would have to wear a belt, but the self-fabric cummerbund is so much better!

In conclusion, I love this pattern, I love the fabric, I love the cummerbund and the fit is great (except the bust). I would love to sew this dress again and fully line it. I'd like to try and modify the bodice to a princess seamed bodice and try to take it in a size :) Hope you guys like the dress. 

I've just realised that I can also wear the cummerbund with my floral V8511 because the fabric matches!

PS. Thank you for all your lovely comments on my M6201 dress and suggestions on the length.
I have decided to go with the short length because I'd like to wear the dress with black tights and I think the short length will look better. I'll post a pic once I finish the hem and wear it out.

Enjoy you Friday and long weekend (to the peeps in Australia). Happy Birthday to the Queen :D

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