Everyone loves a good wedding, right? and last Friday the Wyatt Clan attended the most fun and happy weddings in a long time... It's fair to say though, as a guest, finding the right outfit can be a bit of quandary, never alone making one.
The biggest head scratcher I have to say was "which" pattern to choose, copious amounts of sourcing and reviewing narrowed it down to Vogue's Bellville Sassoon 1296; this is so me and I just fell in love with the whole outfit. However...the wedding had a vintage theme to it, so in keeping I plumped with the Butterick 6018
The Fabric used was a Westfalenstoffe Organic Cotton, Red Pink Flowers and Birds from Dragonfly Fabric's with a great offer of 15% off thanks to the promotion from Jane @ Handmadejane .
I started the said project two weeks prior to the event- rather late I know, but life on the hamster wheel had been spinning pretty fast for me to get off any earlier.
Having used Butterick patterns previously, here here and here, I had experienced various fitting issues up top, but never ( can you believe) completed a FBA! ( Full Bust Adjustment). Wanting to get the best fit possible, it was also the perfect opportunity to test out the enormous amount of research material of tutorials, tips and instructions that are out there. It all seems so straight forward and logical when your reading about it!
Overall I think it was a great sew, the bust fitting could still be improved and not too sure the style is really me, hence will it be worn again? not too sure - but saying that, how many times back in the RTW purchasing are we guilty of only wearing something once for an occasion..I know I am!. Having said that, it did make me feel very girly and I'm totally proud and in love all the little details that I took the time to include, from the self- covered buttons and contrast cuffs, to the hand stitched 3 meter hem! oh,and the pretty much perfect invisible zipper, with matching side seams may I just add - whoo it really nearly is invisible.
Not to make this post too long winded, nine muslins later!!! and I'd just about cracked it; it was like a rewrite of Goldilocks and her bears, this ones too tight, this ones to loose, this ones...by the time I'd finished I didn't even need to refer to the excellent tutorial by Christine Haynes.I'd gone on my upper bust measurement, applied the rule of increasing 1 cm per cupsize or 1/2 the total difference between upper and full measurements = both came out at 3cm. (but too big)The biggest issue was when the sleeve was inserted, it just changed the whole fit...too tight under the arm due to the increased U shape of the armscye shape becoming; if anybody has some wisdom on this it would be gratefully received.
Think you can see just here that there is some tension around the front arm area. Darn-it!
One positive technique I came up with (sure I wont be rocking many boats) but I thought it was pretty smart, was to use sewers carbon paper to mark the darts- I then basted down the centre line to join the interlining fabric, then sewed the dart legs together - result, no shifting of interlining, no bubbles at dart points yeh!!
I wanted the white back ground to retain its crispness, and used a really fine cotton voile to interline the bodice section but hang as a loose lining for the skirt; sharpness of the white works perfectly but it did added a tiny tad too much weight.
In for a penny in for a pound as they say- a net skirt was added for additional va-va-voom- This again I thought was pretty genius! attached with popper tape that's used for duvet covers! this way the net doesn't have to be worn every-time nor laundered so will keeps its umph.
Okay fair cop, one flaw it would of been better if it was sandwiched between the dress fabric and lining, as it was a bit itchy on the legs (an additional slip remedied that!)
Well thanks for stopping by and reading-I'm off to write the post on the dress that was very hastily made for the evening reception! XX
