Ah.......Sweet Completion

Both View A and B of McCall’s 5357 have been completed!  A miracle I know.  

The pesky bodice of View A I finally manipulated to work so that I could insert the zipper.  Oh look how that waistline matches up.  There is a funky bit at the top of the zipper, but hey its under my arm so if anyone is looking that closely and DARES make a comment they had better watch out for my swinging elbow.  No telling what I might accidentally hit.

I am just so happy I have completed this project.  It will be better once I get the pouffy petticoat under View B.

So whats on the agenda now you might well ask….Ask away, a decision has been made.  A 1918 dress, a hopefully wearable muslin before I tackle it in silk made out of this wonderful 1 $ a yard cotton which is actually a much richer color:

McCall's 5357: View B

 A reminder, since it’s been forever since I posted about this project: completing  McCall’s 5337 both View A and B.  

Struggled with View A….well make that still struggling.  When we left our heroine, she finally gave up on inserting that zipper in View A due to what we can unfortunately only call human error somewhere along the line. 

Moving right along to View B and that wonderful silk taffeta which cost significantly more than the cotton used for View A. 

I did make some changes…..The bodice on View B is a little big even though I am quite busty.  However, not wanting to do a FBA cause quite frankly they scare me, I just subtracted about an inch from the bodice and that seemed to work.  I actually took some time to try and line up the pattern.  I was somewhat successful.  With the gingham, it is difficult to match completely with these raglan sleeves. 

Nevertheless, I think the extra care in cutting paid off.  I am pretty pleased with the pattern match up.  Of course the skirt was the ultimate in forgiving since it is a gathered skirt. 

I was able to insert the invisible zipper with no problem thanks to basting it in prior to sewing!!  I love this method it saves on so much heartache.  Look, the waistline matches even if the pattern is a tad off.  Gotta look for that silver lining.

Here is the completed dress, well minus the hem and with just a little petticoat underneath. Hand sewing can be a bit boring so the hem will have to wait for the weekend and a new CD.  I do this this fabulous dress with the crispy taffeta deserves a big pouffy petticoat.....maybe I should get cracking on one of those!

So back to inserting that zipper in View A…..arghhh.

Why Does McCall's Hate Me?

So back to actual sewing…..it has occurred. 

The next step was attaching the bodice to the skirt.  Should be easy peasy right?  Wrong!  The bodice front is much to big for the skirt front.  So what I do is match the pleats to the darts which is really the common sense thing to do.  Where the zipper needs to be inserted onto the front bodice, the bodice bit is 2 inches wider than the skirt bit.

Yes…..I know this is probably human error.  Ok, I admit it is human error something went terribly wrong in cutting out this side of the bodice (even when I say it it doesn’t make much sense) but by now I hate McCall’s and we have already determined that they lie.  So why not just place all of the blame on the pattern.  See:

 

So what do I do?  Easing it in didn't work.

Then I do what anyone would do (kidding) pop the whole thing in the washer to see if washing it will make it magically spring back into place.  Big surprise, it doesn’t!   Now it is wrinkled and I am frustrated.  Again, big surprise.

The question is now how do I get the zipper in?

Should I cut the darn thing to make it work?  I like it too much to make it a wadder (yes that is my wonky dressform from Goodwill).  Let the zipper games begin!

Here is a tease about View B:

 

Look at the gorgeous silk taffeta!  This picture just doesn’t do the silver portion justice.  It is rich and makes that lovely crisp taffeta sound.  Yum!

When big hips are not so big or The envelope lies

So starting with view A:

 I decided to trace out the pattern rather than used the already cut out pieces because when I looked at the pattern envelope for the measurements I noticed that my hips were significantly bigger than the hip measurement provided for by the patter.  Given that this is a straight skirt combined with my wide hips and well endowed rear end, I felt that a big hip adjustment (my words) was in order. So, I figured out how much to add to the pattern to make the skirt fit over my hips.  I slashed the pattern and followed the directions provided for a big hip adjustment.

I cut out the fabric and first put together the bodice.  It came together quickly and fit very well indeed.  The collar and facing went together with ease.  My first raglan sleeves were a joy to insert.  No puckers here. 

The skirt, likewise, went together quickly.  No problems; not even with the back kick pleat thing (yes that is a term of art in the sewing world).  It is now time to try the skirt on prior to attaching it to the bodice.  You must understand that at this point in time, I was feeling proud of myself.  No seams to unpick.  The complicated collar and neck facing turned out perfectly.  I was amazed that this dress was both coming together quickly and that it actually looked professionally made.

Then .....the horror.....I put on the skirt and...........its ..............tooooooooooooooooo....BIG.  Not by a  little bit.........but by ALOT....super huge amounts of fabric swallowing those hip and rear.  My big hips unimaginably lost in acres of fabric.  How could the skirt be this huge? 

Imagine the stunned look on my face as I gazed in the mirror.  The mixture of horror and amazement.  I checked math and no that quarter of an inch would bring the skirt to my hip size. 

Then came the next 1 1/2 hours of taking in the seams, taking in the darts, making bigger pleats.  I finally got the back of the skirt and the waist to fit.  But from the front, skirt still looked HUGE.  If the bodice did not look so perfect, I would have thrown the whole thing out at this point blessing the good that is $1 yard fabric.  The zipper could be used for something else I could rationalize.  But I loved the bodice.  I had set in my sleeves perfectly, no puckers.  Oh the frustration.

Finally, I made the drastic decision to take the skirt apart and re-cut the front piece to start with to see if that would fix this size issue. 

So unpicking began.  Goodbye nice darts.

The next night the skirt started from scratch.  First the front piece is recut and I basted it onto the back pieces.  Lo and behold, the skirt looked normal and asif it fit.  Now remember, the back pieces have darts which have quadrupled in size and huge seam allowances.  But looking at the front piece, the heavens opened up lighting up my joyous face and I knew that I had to re-cut the back pieces as well.  Goodbye basting and back kick pleat thing; the unpicking begins again.

So the back pieces are recut and then the skirt sewn back together.  At this point you must understand that matching the plaid was just not an option. Taking the skirt to the mirror once again yielded a totally different sight……a well fitting skirt.

Hallelujah…..it is time to attach the bodice to the skirt with the funky ribbon waistband thing.

Lets Get Started

Just note now, that my titles are going to suck. I am not very imaginative when it comes to titles. So, I apologize here and now but hopefully never again.

I am currently working on McCall’s 5357.

Yes, both views. Actually, I began both views in December but starting with View A, the sheath dress. I had a lovely cottony flannel grey plain in my stash that spoke to me for View A. Starting the sheath dress, in my typical fashion, I impatiently traced out the pattern and started cutting. Did I think about pattern matching? No way! That thought only occurred to me after the dress was mostly sewn. Does this make the dress a wadder, no. If you look at many ready to wear dresses, they do not do any better at matching patterns. Besides, I work in an office where I am the most put together person, meaning sometimes I think I am the only person who put on clean clothes to come to work. So…shrugging shoulders…if I can live with it I doubt anyone else will notice.

While the bodice went together nicely, the skirt did not. I will explain in another post.

View B was begun with a Christmas party in mind. I had a beautiful gingham silk taffeta in my stash that I thought would be perfect. So, again with little to no planning, I just jumped right in. The bodice was traced off and the skirt pieces were merely squares……so off I went cutting away. This time, some pattern matching entered my brain during the cutting process. Want to match up those squares as much as possible.