The Wedding Dress -- The Fitting and Necessary Adjustments

The DD came up for Thanksgiving week and the second she arrived home from the airport, she wanted to try on the dress. Ouch -- the muslin was too big. It was probably a combination of her loosing a couple of inches and my cutting/sewing, but it was large all over. Because I had previously made so many adjustments.to the base bodice, I ended up making an entirely new one. I began by pinching up a small portion of the deference at each seam in order to spread out the adjustments evenly over all of the seams. Next I marked the changes onto new fabric and then re-cut all new pieces.

DD also wanted a few changes. The ruching in the drapes was too soft and not tight enough for her. So not only did I have to narrow the front and back drapes, I had to lengthen them to allow for more gathering from top to bottom.

It took me a while to figure out how to accomplish lengthening the pieces; but I ended up cutting the drape into 3 even slices and then pinning them on new fabric measuring from the salvages over to the grain line in each slice of the pattern piece. I smoothed out the seam lines with my fashion ruler and marked the new pieces.

On the left is the resulting elongated back drape and at the top of the page you can see the new and tighter looking ruching.

So, along with hosting Thanksgiving and having two of the "kids" home for the week, I have had to begin re-cutting the the muslin. We did have a fun morning a Vogue Fabric in Evanston, Illinois -- What a treat that was! Stay tuned for that story.

I have to admit, I have not been sleeping well the last few days. I lie awake trying to figure out what I need to do next; thinking about what else could go wrong; and wondering if I bit off more than I can chew.

Time will tell. Happy insomnia!