Winter Wool Dress Muslin - Advice Wanted

Today must be muslin day (toile for my British friends) as the lovely Karen blogged about her coat muslin earlier on. I agree 100% with her on the fact that there is nothing flattering about a muslin. I look hideous! But I know muslins are important to ensure a good fit. How frustrating to spend time and money and end up with a badly fit garment. Just take my Winter wool dress, from the gorgeous pattern above. If I had cut my pricey, gorgeous wool flannel what would I do with it? I wouldn't wear it, for sure.

Anyway...I need help! I need your wonderful advice on how to fit this dress and any comments are very helpful.

The dress fits like a glove from the waist down. The length needs taking by about 10 inches but that's easy. I only pinned it roughly for the photos so ignore that.

Onto the dreaded photos. Straight up with arms down you can see some bagginess in the arms.

Hands on hips the bagginess in the arms becomes clear.

Side view shows some more bagginess in the front and somethings terrible wrong at the back.

Back view. Too much fabric.

So as usual for me, the bodice is way too big, even though the measurements in this vintage pattern are smaller than mine. ( I'm a bust 32 and pattern is for bust 30). The sleeves are kimono with gussets under the arms. Disappointingly (but understandable) my pattern making class was cancelled today due to illness as I believe we were going to do kimono sleeves.

My dear readers, any suggestions, recommendations? What do I take out, where and how. Thank you!!

Double Knit Dress - New Project

As if I don't have much sewing related activities going on I'm starting a new project this weekend. This time a double knit dress which I will hopefully finish in time to wear this winter. The pattern is Vogue 8413 and I'll be using a lovely turquoise double knit.

I first started thinking about double knits when I read Gertie's post on a quick dress she had put together at the time of the Lady Grey Sewalong. In fact she made another one shortly after. Afterwards I saw Mrs Exeter had also embarked on a double knit adventure with a gorgeous red number.

The dress idea came back after seeing some gorgeous double knit on sale at an online fabric shop. I decided there and then to do something and ordered about 3 metres. There were many colour options but I quite liked the turquoise and it's a colour I do not have in my wardrobe. After that I hunted for a pattern that asked for double knits and this was the only I found that had some long sleeve versions. I will probably do view D or E.  You can see an example of view D here. (I couldn't find a blog for this talented lady).

If you have sewn with double knits and have some advice or tips I'll be more than happy to hear about them.

Corduroy Winter Dress finished

"The hills are alive with the sound of music..."

That's what I thought when I finished this dress and saw myself in the mirror. Actually it was more like "Hello Julie Andrews!" I was also called Dorothy at work! What can I say, I wore it with a blue turtleneck and some cute wedges and a ponytail so the entire outfit was a bit more The Sound of Music.

I do love this dress though and see myself wearing it quite a lot through winter. Being able to wear chunky knitwear underneath definitely helps. If it wasn't for that I doubt I would use it much in cold weather.


And that's exactly the reason I decided to do a sleeveless version. The pattern was taken out of Sew magazine issue 17.
I enjoyed working with corduroy and think I will very soon be adding another corduroy project to my immense To Sew list.
My only issue was lining the armholes. I ended up just pressing and sewing. Not gorgeous inside but it doesn't look bad either.In terms of fitting the only issue is the fact the bodice is a bit to loose, as you can notice on the photo on the right. I usually have that problem with bodices. Definitely need to learn how to fit a bodice but hey, that's one of the reasons I decided to join Gertie's Crepe sewalong!


Photos were done by my gorgeous bf who also did my hair! Am I not a lucky girl ;)

Progress on Winter Dress

Working on my Winter Dress Project and now stuck and in need of help! Started last week by cutting all my fabric pieces but couldn't start sewing as I ran out of black thread. Placed an order online and I'm now stocked so started sewing yesterday. Was very anxious as it's my first time sewing with corduroy but have to say it hasn't been bad. I had to zig zag all the raw edges because corduroy ravels like crazy. It also sheds some "fluff" which is now everywhere. I decided on some design changes. My initial though was to insert sleeves, after all it's a winter dress. But when I gave it a bit more thought I realised it wouldn't make a difference as even with sleeves the dress wouldn't be warm enough for me to wear in winter. So I decided to do the sleeveless version and use it with a nice close fitting jumper underneath. Because I want to keep it simple I'm not doing the collar either. The princess seams were fairly easy to sew. They are a bit of a nightmare but with care and attention it works out fine. I also had to chop off 11 inches from bottom as it looked like I was out of the Little House on the Prairie 80s TV series.  This is what I have so far:

I've constructed most of the dress, attached the lining, finished neck seams and have the back seam and invisible zipper to do plus finish the lining in the armholes. And this is where I'm truly stuck and in dire need of help. I have found several tutorials on how to attach lining to sleeveless armholes but a) they are all in fabrics less bulky than corduroy and b) all have the side seams still open. I have thought of a way to do it but would love to finish it the right way, if that makes sense. Below are Sew Magazine instructions for the armholes and it's gibberish to me. I have read it countless times and have not yet made sense of it. I am sure it means something very simple and once I crack it I'll be like...duhhh!! But for now I'm truly stuck, so if someone knows about this or can make sense of the below please leave a comment or email me at : suzysewingblog[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk. Thank you!