New skirt for the cross-over empire bodice

I really like the cross-over empire bodice but I am not very happy with the skirt. I am making another muslin using my princess line block for the skirt top. This skirt has only a little flare with box pleats on the side front and side back seams. A quick basting of the skirt to the bodice with the pleats not sewn into the seam showed the pleats worked nicely but needed to be sewed closed a bit lower.

I had gathered the under bust gathers into an area 1/2 inches wider and didn't like that. I have now re-gathered them back into the same length as the first dress. The pleats are sewn down longer in the bodice with the depth of the front pleats increased to match the tighter gathering of the bodice.

I am putting pockets in the side seams of the skirt. In the August Sewalong thread on Stitcher's Guild, Melinda posted a link to Sigrid's side seam pocket tutorial that helped me see how I can put a pocket in the skirt.

I like the top of the pocket to be sewn to skirts and dress at the waist seam. Pockets just hang better, especially when I put the insulin pump, keys or cell phone in the pocket. I have been doing an angled pockets and an angled pocket won't work with an empire waist.

I stopped doing in-seam pockets because I had consistent problems with skirts tearing at the bottom of the pocket opening. Sigrid's way of doing in-seam pockets is a bit different and I hope this will solve the tear problem. I have a similar pocket in a RTW rayon challis skirt that hasn't torn in 3 years.

One of the 2 pocket pieces goes up into the waist seam, the other stops a couple of inches above the pocket opening. I didn't sew the top of the shorter pocket piece to the longer pocket piece so my insulin pump should slip easily into either pocket.

Hopefully I can finish the 2nd pocket and baste the skirt back into the bodice tonight.

10 gore skirt

A few weeks ago I was wearing an 2 piece dress I made last summer (details here). The skirt is an 8 gore skirt with some fullness. I decided I wanted a 'twirly' skirt and a 10 or 12 gore skirt would be a good way to make one. I had Thursday and Friday off last week so part of the long weekend was spent drafting and sewing a 10 gore skirt. I used the 8-gore skirt to get an idea of how wide to make the top and how much the waist and hem should curve. I used these 6 gore skirt instructions adapted for more gores. The first muslin showed the gores were too flared and didn't hang well. I narrowed the gores a bit and love the result.

I made the skirt with some rayon challis I bought last summer. I put slash pockets in the side seams and an elastic waist band. I had the skirt all finished except for the hem last weekend and hemmed it Wednesday night. After finishing the skirt except for the hem I tried to make a matching blouse and ended up with a wadder*. I have a print that should match or I might try to dye some rayon to match. The only summer top I have that goes with the skirt is a white t-shirt so a blouse to match is high on the things to sew list.

* A wadder is a sewing project that doesn't turn out - something you wad up and throw away.

Cross-over bodice changes and adding a skirt

Last weekend I moved some of the armhole dart to the under bust gathers. I also shortened the bodice a bit. I have the hopefully wearable muslin bodice ready to gather. The neckline is finised as are the shoulder and side seams. The next step is to gather the bodice and sew it to some twill tape to stabilize the seam before I add the skirt.

Last night I cut out the skirt. I measured the length of the bodice front to determine where to start the skirt on my princess line block. I decided I wanted a dress and not a top so I lengthed the skirt to be 36 inches below the pattern waistline. This may be too long but I would rather cut off extra than end up with the dress too short.

No pictures yet but I took some of the side back pattern pinned on the fabric and the new cutting lines for the skirt drawn on the fabric.

Drafting a crossover empire waist bodice

Someone on Stitcher's Guild asked how others used a sloper. I am working on bodice for the Pattern Review My Pattern contest and just drafted the bodice yesterday. Here are the details.

My bodice sloper is an armhole princess. I placed the side and center fronts together, matching at the bust point. I moved the side front so some of the dart equivalent in the princess seam formed an armhole dart with the remaining dart amount under the bustline.

If I were starting from a darted block, I would have rotated 1/2 the dart amount to the armhole and half to where a waistline dart would go.

I placed my tracing fabric over the positioned pattern pieces. I traced the armhole leaving the stitching line for the dart unmarked. I also traced the neckline, center front and side seam and marked the apex. These were traced on the seamline, not the cutting line. I then determined where I wanted the waistline and marked that seamline with a curved ruler. The sloper pieces were then removed from underneath the new pattern.

I folded the pattern at the center front and traced the waistline out several inches. The neckline was next, I measured (on me) how high the v-neck needed to be so the neckline wasn't too low. I then drew in a slightly curved line from the neckline just below the shoulder seam to the extended waistline. I measured back from the apex and marked the point of the dart and drew dart lines out beyond the armhole seamline. I folded the dart, and traced the armhole seam in the dart from the armhole seam below the dart.

I then put the side and center backs together in a smilier way leaving the dart excess unmarked at the waistline. The dart amount for my back is minimal and often not needed.

I added seam allowances around using my normal amounts (2 cm on shoulder and side seams, 1.5 cm on armhole and 1 cm on neckline).

The first muslin showed the waist was un-even and the bust gathers were too close to the center front. I pinned waistline changes so the waist was even and marked where the gathers should be moved to. I made a second muslin and basted the underbust gathers. The waistline now even but was too low. I also needed waist darts in the back. I measured how much to shorten the waistline and pinned darts in the back at the waist so I knew what size darts I needed. I made those adjustments to my pattern and have started to cut out a test bodice. I am using fabric I will wear if the pattern works okay that will be okay if it doesn't work.

The 1st muslin was off the bolt I bought last fall when Joann's had muslin on a good sale. That muslin was a bit stiff for this design so I used some softer muslin I had left from a gored skirt muslin/slip. In addition to muslin I buy $1 and $2 fabric from Walmart and check the red tag section at Joann's when it is 50% off.

Success with pleats

I finally have a blouse pattern with forward shoulder seams and pleats that I like. The best part is it fits. Last fall I tried making such a pattern with flat pattern drafting with no success. Enter Matilda, my too small dress form with a padded cover that is the same size as I am. I draped the pattern on Matilda and cut the blouse with large seam allowances. The collar I took from a commerical pattern. I made a matching 8-gore skirt.