I thought I should write a separate post about attaching the By Hand London Anna bodice to the Colette Macaron skirt for my That Million Dolly Look #sewDollyClackett dress. The genius of this mashup, as I thought, is that in each case you get rid of the half that has eleventy billion pattern pieces. I reduced the number of pieces even further by cutting the back bodice on the fold. You would think this was a match made in sewing heaven, wouldn't you?
Well, yes. But you would make a muslin first. You would be clever and avoid any mistakes before you started sewing the real thing.
Me? Not so much.
Look, the bodice fit me, the skirt fit me, they're both close fitting at the waist, and I wasn't going to fuss about the pleats and darts not matching up since the pattern was fairly busy... what could possibly go wrong?
What did go wrong* was that the front bodice was about an inch too narrow for the front skirt, while the back bodice was two inches too wide. Bizarre. I originally thought I would have to resew all the pleats, but I tried unpicking them from the bottom just to the seam line, pinning the skirt to the bodice in the centre and sort of stretching the bodice to fit. The pleats became more of a box pleat at the bottom, but you can't really tell unless you look really closely. A good sewist would have unpicked and readjusted the pleats so they were knife sharp again.
I'll let you draw your own conclusions from that.
I thought the back would be really easy to deal with; just make the darts an inch wider and resew them. The problem was that widening the darts throughout meant taking away from the seam allowance to the point where I couldn't close the side seam. Leaving the bottom tucks meant that it would be poofy at the bottom. A good look in the front, not so much in the back. I decided to sew the waist seam, install the side zip, and deal with the poofy once I had a dress that fit.
Yeah, yeah, I know. Make a muslin. Or at least baste fit the thing before sewing.
Anyway, when the DC came home from work, I had him pin the darts closed while I was wearing the dress, then I used a blind stitch to close them up. I think they look like regular darts if you don't look too closely.
It's hard to see the white hand stitches on the outside of the seams in the next photo, but you can see how much I had to take the darts in by.
Even with all that, I really like the way this dress turned out. Should you choose to do this mashup, I recommend the muslin idea, because you will need to adjust both the pleat and dart widths on the bodice. I would also suggest moving the inner skirt front pleats out to line up with the outer bodice pleats; likewise moving the back bodice darts in to line up with the skirt pleats. It's also very snug at the waist, so take that into account if you'd prefer something a bit looser.
Oh, and check to see how high the side zip needs to go so you can pull the dress on and off without hurting something. This was my first invisible zip and I'm pretty proud of the job. Which is why I don't want to rip it out to shift it higher.
I'm inching closer to finishing the LGRAB dress and will update the previous post when it's done. I will also get around to posting something about the shoe clips.
*What else went wrong was the usual thing that happens when I reuse a pattern but don't reread the instructions first. Let's just say that it is possible to add the pockets after you've sewn the Macaron skirt pleats. I don't recommend it. Also, in one of my three attempts at sewing the seam above the invisible zip, I managed to sew right through the zipper stop. Which broke it. I'm planning to cover it with a piece of grosgrain ribbon if it turns out to be super scratchy, but so far I haven't noticed a problem.
Well, yes. But you would make a muslin first. You would be clever and avoid any mistakes before you started sewing the real thing.
Me? Not so much.
Look, the bodice fit me, the skirt fit me, they're both close fitting at the waist, and I wasn't going to fuss about the pleats and darts not matching up since the pattern was fairly busy... what could possibly go wrong?
What did go wrong* was that the front bodice was about an inch too narrow for the front skirt, while the back bodice was two inches too wide. Bizarre. I originally thought I would have to resew all the pleats, but I tried unpicking them from the bottom just to the seam line, pinning the skirt to the bodice in the centre and sort of stretching the bodice to fit. The pleats became more of a box pleat at the bottom, but you can't really tell unless you look really closely. A good sewist would have unpicked and readjusted the pleats so they were knife sharp again.
I'll let you draw your own conclusions from that.
I thought the back would be really easy to deal with; just make the darts an inch wider and resew them. The problem was that widening the darts throughout meant taking away from the seam allowance to the point where I couldn't close the side seam. Leaving the bottom tucks meant that it would be poofy at the bottom. A good look in the front, not so much in the back. I decided to sew the waist seam, install the side zip, and deal with the poofy once I had a dress that fit.
Yeah, yeah, I know. Make a muslin. Or at least baste fit the thing before sewing.
Anyway, when the DC came home from work, I had him pin the darts closed while I was wearing the dress, then I used a blind stitch to close them up. I think they look like regular darts if you don't look too closely.
It's hard to see the white hand stitches on the outside of the seams in the next photo, but you can see how much I had to take the darts in by.
Even with all that, I really like the way this dress turned out. Should you choose to do this mashup, I recommend the muslin idea, because you will need to adjust both the pleat and dart widths on the bodice. I would also suggest moving the inner skirt front pleats out to line up with the outer bodice pleats; likewise moving the back bodice darts in to line up with the skirt pleats. It's also very snug at the waist, so take that into account if you'd prefer something a bit looser.
Oh, and check to see how high the side zip needs to go so you can pull the dress on and off without hurting something. This was my first invisible zip and I'm pretty proud of the job. Which is why I don't want to rip it out to shift it higher.
I'm inching closer to finishing the LGRAB dress and will update the previous post when it's done. I will also get around to posting something about the shoe clips.
*What else went wrong was the usual thing that happens when I reuse a pattern but don't reread the instructions first. Let's just say that it is possible to add the pockets after you've sewn the Macaron skirt pleats. I don't recommend it. Also, in one of my three attempts at sewing the seam above the invisible zip, I managed to sew right through the zipper stop. Which broke it. I'm planning to cover it with a piece of grosgrain ribbon if it turns out to be super scratchy, but so far I haven't noticed a problem.
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