Whew

Crazy busy week.  Too much going on with work to sew.  This weekend did see some sewing time.

Shoulder detail

The bodice came together like a dream even with the top stitching on the shoulder detail.  I did make a slight FBA but felt with the gathers and because it is a bigger size than I normally, I would probably be alright.  Fingers crossed this holds true.

Changing Gears

Yum! Turquoise and brown - perfect
for a sun dress.

Because the 1940’s skirt was giving me a headache, I decided to work on something a little more fun.  I wanted to use this fabric.

But what pattern.   Trolling through my patterns and pulling out a few maybes, I finally went with View 2 of Simplicity 1620.  I only had a couple of yards of fabric and thought not only will I be able to get this dress out of the yardage I had but also it would show off this Hawaiian print.  As you have probably already noticed, I love a Hawaiian print.  Note, this is the FIRST Simplicity pattern I have attempted.

This scan if from the vintage
pattern wikia.  Mine has a
32 bust and a ripped envelope.

I traced off the pattern and then started measuring my yardage. I measured and measured and measured some more.  I had barely enough fabric to make this dress.  Granted, I could make the skirt less full but what is the fun in that?

So to be a little different and because of the lack of excess fabric, I made a muslin of the bodice….actually, I made 2 muslins of the bodice.  First muslin included a FBA.  It was HUGE!!  I showed sewing friends who confirmed it was way too big for me.  So, I quickly whipped up another muslin.  Second muslin did not have an FBA and it fit perfectly per the consensus of the group!

What is happening here?  This is the second mid-1950’s dress that did not require an FBA.  Hmmmm …..does this mean I should only wear clothes from this era?  Were patterns built for a C cup?  Interesting development and totally taking me by surprise.  Has anyone else found this to be true? 

Diving In

This really says Fall rather than
Spring with all the brown leaves

Still dithering over the princess seam FBA.

I did a pin fitting…definitely one of the pluses of using the soil separator for patterns.  I sewed it up and tried it on.  It seemed to fit.  Seriously not too tight  at all.

So I think I need to take a deep breath and just go for it.  The fabric was not expensive so why not?

I am still afraid of the princess seams.

Fear

So this is the pattern I would like to work on. 

Why am I afraid of this pattern?

Two things are stopping me: 1. bound buttonholes and 2. princess seam FBA.  These techniques scare me. 

I know I can skip the bound buttonholes and just make regular one.  But no matter how you slice it, I will need to make an FBA on the princess seams.  I spent yesterday dithering around looking in my sewing books and online for assistance making a FBA on the princess seams.  All this research and I found a variety of ways to make the FBA and am not utterly confused.  I have rather decided the FFRP method is not for me.  It would increase the rest of the dress unnecessarily.  The Reader’s Digest Sewing book just has you draw bigger curves in the bust area which is a better idea because it focuses on the problem area but the question is how much bigger?

I think I will be doing the Sandra Betzina method of increasing the bust area with princess seams.

Why is this so confusing?  Does anyone have a favorite way of doing an FBA on a princess seam dress??