Correcting the Pattern

 After the fitting, I marked where I'd pinned the hips and the side seams to correct the fit.  Once marked, I took the pins out, and cut along the drawn princess seams.  As you can see from the picture, each piece has a counterpart on the other side.  The next move is to create a new pattern with the new pieces, including the drop waist and the addition of the five inches.  To create the pattern pieces, I pinned one piece to my brown pattern paper, and drew around it with a pen.

 Once done on one side, I take the opposite side, turn it over, and re-pin the second piece.  I am lining up the waist line because that was consistent throughout the garment.  Once I draw around the second piece, I unpin it.  There will be variations between the two, and so I will have to make a compromise.

 As you can see here, I have two lines.  The line I end up going with will be halfway between.  When I make the second muslin, I will be making sure the waist line matches up.  If the tops and/or bottom of the garment doesn't line up (likely) I can easily make corrections then.

These are the completed 2nd version of the bodice pattern.  As you can see they are a very different shape from the first one.  I've also placed a picture of the originals below so that you can compare.  I've added the extra length on the bottom, and combined the basic body block and drop waist piece into one.  I've also eliminated the darts by using princess seams. The next step will be to cut a new muslin, and try it on Gina again!

The First Fitting

The next step is to put what I've currently created on Gina, and see how it fits.  The garment is currently open at the back - and will continue to be as that is where I will eventually be putting a zipper in.  Once Gina is in the top - I use safety pins to close the back.  The hips needed a bit of adjustment so I safety pinned those as well.  Once the fit of the garment was correct, we started to add princess seams, and extra fabric to the bottom.  The drop waist turned out to be about 5 inches too short - so I will add more length when I correct the patterns. Taking a sharpie, we drew in a new neckline - a sweetheart strapless neckline.  This I then cut off the top of the garment to get the look we were looking for.  Then we drew in princess seams.  I drew them on both sides - naturally which will not come out to be exactly the same.  This will be corrected later.

Before I removed the top.

After I cut off the top - sports bra's not the best, but oh well....

Working on fitting the hips.

The bodice on the dress form

...and a second view

Cutting & Making the Muslin Bodice

   Once the initial pattern has been made, I need to cut it out of muslin.  Muslin is just a cheep fabric that is easy to work with, which is a good color to show corrections on.  As you can see I've pinned the pattern to the fabric.  The fabric is doubled over - which allows me to cut two of each of the pieces in one go.  Two of the pieces are cut on the fold which makes one piece out of the two layers of fabric.  As you can see in the picture, I've drawn the seam allowance around each of the patterns in the amount of 1/2 inch on all sides, except the bottom, which has 2 inches (just in case it's too short).

  Once the pieces are cut out, I used a pounce wheel (see picture - it's the tiny spiky wheel) and transfer paper.  If you look carefully you can see the tracing marks on the fabric in the picture on the left. You place the paper folded in half between the two fabric pieces, and then run the pounce wheel over it.  This transfers little blue dot lines to the fabric.  I use this to mark both the seam edge and the edges of the darts.

Once I did this on all the pieces, I did a running stitch at the seam edge all the way around to make sure I could see where the marks were.  Then I pinned the darts, and stitched them.  The darts are done first - the you start at the top of the garment and do the seams.  I pinned and stitched the shoulders, then the sides of the bodice.  Next is the sides of the drop waist, and last I connected the drop waist and the bodice.  Once connected, I needed to do a fitting with Gina!  I've attached a few more pictures of it on the dress form from before the fitting.  See below.

The Front view

A close up of what the darts do.

The  back view

Patterning the Bodice and Dropped Waist

   Once I received Gina's measurements, I could begin!  The first step is to create an initial pattern.  This particular pattern is not a whole lot like what the final dress bodice will look like, but it is a beginning.  It is something that I can put on Gina, that will fit her measurements, that I can then alter and change until it becomes what she is interested in wearing.

  The first thing is to create this pattern.  In college I was given a copy of The Pattern Development Handbook by Rosemary Ingham & Liz Covey.  In it are very explicit instructions on how to manipulate measurements to create a grid, and create the basic body block.  If you look closely at the first pictures you can see the faint gridlines I began with.

  The triangular pieces are darts marked within the pattern.  Darts are used in clothing to gather extra cloth to allow for curves.  These darts are here so that the garment will fit closely to Gina to begin with, and then I will take them out by using princess seams to control the fullness of fabric.  NSA stands for No Seam Allowance.  It's there to remind me to cut a seam allowance in the fabric when I cut out the peaces.  Where it says straight of grain - I am reminding myself in which direction I want the grain of the fabric to go.
   Fabric has three directions, straight of grain, cross grain and bias.  Straight of grain is the warp threads in a fabric.  It is the direction in which fabric has the least amount of stretch.  Cross grain is exactly what it sounds like, 90 degrees from straight of grain.  It is the second least stretch direction.  Bias is 45 degrees from straight of grain in either direction.  It is the direction of most stretch in a fabric.  This is important when creating patterns because it effects how the fabric falls and stretches with gravity and the weight of the cloth.

   The next thing I decided to pattern was the drop waist section of the bodice.  When you pattern the basic body block, it only comes down to the person's natural waist.  Gina was looking for something to come down mid-hip, so this is my first attempt at it.  It is the flat patterning for the top of a skirt (which starts at the natural waist).  In this first attempt they are separate, however after the first fitting when I recreate the patterns, I will make them one piece.  You can see there is a dart on the back piece here as well - to control fullness of fabric above the bum.  Again, notice the marks for straight of grain and No Seam Allowance.

Next step - cutting the muslin to fit the pattern, and creating the first bodice for the fitting!

In the Beginning

Hello! So on Friday May 25th, Gina, Jennifer, Linda, Alexis, Kenzie, Pam and I went to Vows in Watertown, MA to try and get an idea as to what Gina was looking for in a dress.  When Gina originally asked me to make her dress, she had no idea as to what she was interested in.  Now that she had gone to two different wedding dress boutiques, she had a bit more of an idea.  Although, talking to her, she's not so sure!  I have a much better understanding however, so we have somewhere to start.  Gina is looking for a strapless dress with a sweetheart neckline.  She likes the idea of an asymmetrical sash just below the bust creating a empire waist shape.  She is interested in a drop waist, with perhaps a layered skirt and a slight train.  There was a dress at Vows that had a beautiful layered train with a similar shape - but the skirt started too low on Gina.  She's looking for a light fabric, an off white or ivory type color, and lace accents.  SO with all the new information, I took Gina's measurements, and went off to begin.