Its time for a wedding dress!

How will she reach anything?

Greg and I are engaged! 

(and have been, for a little while, but we just got around to getting a ring and making it public)

(This has also meant he has gotten stuck with all my ramblings on about lace and silhouettes and such.   For all that he is learning to sew, I think this may have been a bit much. - SOOOO now I get to yammer on to the internet, and the joys of fancy fabrics I usually forbid myself since they just don't fit into my life.)

Anyhow, I've set myself a few rules for the dress:

1: I need to be able to breath freely and move easily (so no corsets, trains, long tight sleeves, etc)

2: I need to be able to dance without falling over (so just slightly shorter than floor length)

3: I need to be able to use the bathroom without a squad of helpers.  (the skirt can't eat me alive)

I know I want some sort of straps or other over-the-shoulder-something, a long, full skirt, and some kind of textured embellishment - but otherwise, I'm not sure what it will end up looking like.  Right now my thoughts are running along these lines:

okay, probably not this.  I would catch on everything, but its a pretty amazing skirt.

smurfing the couch

Why cover a perfectly lovely couch?   Silly Greg is allergic to cats and doesn't want them rolling back and forth on the furniture until there is a removable, washable cover.

So I'm slowly, but surely, making that cover - during which time the cats are living in the (finished, furnished, has been used as an apartment) basement.

Now, I have to attack the back and sides... bum bum bum!

M7121 - Meh

before and after modifications,
with a hefty dose of why-I-am-putting-these-pictures-on-the-internet?

 Excuse the potato quality pictures.  I was pretty lazy about getting these.  

I'd been particularly excited about this pattern, as I thought the chevron would solve the fabric problem I was having.   My lovely stripy fabric (found on the bargain table) stretched ALONG the stripes, instead of perpendicularly to them.... (which is probably why it ended up on the bargain table.)  But with a bias cut, I could avoid horizontal stripes and still manage to get into it.

Silly me.

Straight out off the pattern (I know.. but I didn't bother to muslin this) it was a mess.  Despite being a knit and what looks to be a fairly close fit, it has an elasticized waist  -- but not enough material to make it bloused -- just enough to make it pull oddly.  Plus, the whole thing hangs rather low.

Anyhow, I have since taken out the elastic, taken it in the waist and pulled the shoulders up by about three inches.  It's helped, but I'm still not very happy with the fit.  (Greg's verdict: 'It's okay, but your other dresses are nicer')  

Whoever drafted this pattern really punted hard - rather than facings or binding or lining or anything, it just calls for folding over and sewing.  Not even with stabilization - no way the armholes won't grow like crazy.   So, someday, when I'm less disappointed by this dress, I'll probably do a binding of some kind.  However, for the moment.  meh.  Mostly just a bit annoyed over wasting fabric I really liked.

If you are thinking about using this pattern, make sure to plan some significant redrafting into your plans.