Great Expectations!

We got together again the first weekend of March. This time we planned to Make the Entire Bodice. We had scaled down our expectations a bit from the last time. We were confident we'd be able to get this done; we only had to lengthen the bodice, make sure it fit to the skirt, fit it as perfectly as possible to Teresa, and voila! Bodice finished! Sewn to skirt! We have a wedding dress!

Dress Top 2.0

First we had Teresa put on the muslin bodice and silk skirt, and took measurements. We decided to add 4 inches to the length of the bodice, to give us a little wiggle room for sewing it all together.

Meanwhile, we asked Teresa what she thought of the skirt, now that it was sewn together. Um... Could it be fuller? Yes, sure, absolutely, it can be fuller! Hmmm, which piece should we use to make it so? We had a choice of two side panels we could use, one being fuller to begin with than the other. We decided on the fuller piece because that piece had the curve to the train built in. I was charged with redrawing the hemline to match it up with the existing side panel, not hard to do, and we were very pleased to have the pieces cut out and fitting into the skirt perfectly.

Now for the bodice. We needed 4 inches added to each piece, doubles of each piece for the self lining, and we needed to line things up properly with the grain. We decided to make another muslin of the bodice, since it was to be a new one entirely.

New Length of Dress

Note to self: cutting and pasting is easier in a word document than it is on a tissue pattern and muslin material. I'm just saying it took longer than I expected; I expected it to take minutes to stretch out the pattern pieces, and it took much longer. In my defense, I wasn't good at geometry in school, school was years ago, and I was being careful. Trying to think of everything that could go wrong. Listening to that little voice that I ignored last time.

I think taking such care panned out - the bodice went together beautifully. It fit Teresa beautifully. And it fit the skirt beautifully. Oh, and the lengths of skirt and bodice were - perfect.

But now it was once again Sunday night and we were finished for the weekend. We didn't get to the silk bodice at all. And we realized we're not ready to sew it all together, either. We need to plan out the foofy layers that go over the silk, both skirt and bodice. And there are all the appliques...

 We took some more notes, packed things away, and planned for our next get-together.