A-line Dress 1967 Part 2 - Construction

 OMG. What I thought would be a one day project turned into 3! One day for pattern modifications and 2 days for construction, deconstruction, and construction again.

Day 2: After I finished my pattern alterations, I went to my stash to find rubbish fabric for a muslin. This was definitely a new thing for me since I typically wing it. However, because I had to alter this in size so much, I figured I should take the time to make a muslin. I found in my stash my 25 year old IKEA red cotton fabric that I used as curtains in my bachelorette days. Perfect. I had been holding on to them for so long. Good thing I cut a muslin because right away I found an issue with the arm scythe - way too small and too high. I had to drop it an inch...back to the pattern for adjustments.

I also realized that when I made my muslin, I did not need the full dress since this was basically an A-line with no waist. So I cut the one back, the front bodice, and one sleeve for fitting. Everything seemed ok after adjustments.

Time for laying out the pattern on my fabric. Last summer I picked up several jersey knit and cotton weave fabrics. For this dress, I chose a leafy pattern jersey knit - it feels so soft against your skin. I would learn a lot, and I mean A LOT, about sewing knits over the next two days! 

 I carefully cut my pieces out and began planning the assembly. Thoughts ran through my mind before I turned in for the night like "oh no, did I cut the fabric on the correct fabric line" - knits stretch all over the place but stretch more in one direction than others. Luckily, I had cut my fabric properly and could go to bed. Another thought that ran through my mind was that I did not need to follow this pattern exactly since I was not going to include a zipper. What I should have done is created the back of the dress on a fold eliminating a seam.

Day 3: Knits - love 'em or leave 'em and definitely not for an amateur with pattern modifications. A cotton weave material would have been far easier to assemble and probably would have taken less time. Interfacing is a must. In my Grand-MIL's stash, I found a lot of lightweight stabilizer! This pattern seemed so simple - 9 steps, 8 for me as I skipped the zipper. How hard could it be?

Step 1 of the pattern called for pockets on the front...after about 2 hours of messing around with stabilizer and pockets (of the same material as the dress - knit) I gave up...I'll deal with pockets later and possibly create side pockets instead of front patch pockets. On to Step 2 - creating darts in raglan sleeves. Interfacing to the rescue! This allowed me to create wonderful darts. Step 3 - attaching raglan sleeves to the front and back and gathering the front. Step 4/5 - attaching the collar to the dress and adjusting the gathers. At this point I realized that I did not cut 2 of the neck facing....back to cutting. Attaching the collar was one of the he difficult steps. According to the pattern, the gathers are only in the front so between knit fabric, pinning, lots of fabric, pinning, turning I was fit to be tied. I finally got everything where it was supposed to be and went to the serger. Step 6 - sew the side seams and arms closed.

At this point, I tried it on to see my masterpiece

1) jersey knit fabric is heavier than I realized so the drape was interesting 2) the darts in the sleeves were in the wrong place completely (too far forward - on a Junior size 9, probably in the correct place, but not on this body) 3) the gathers in the front created a weird pull on the bust line

Time to deconstruct the neckline and start over. I cut out the neck facing, moved the dart to the top of the shoulder, added gathers in the back to take up some extra fabric, and re-gathered the front. Basted the gathers in place and pinned the collar back on. Then I took it to my dress form and pinned the heck out of the neck facing. Then I realized that I could be more efficient with my sewing by addressing the other part of the neck facing so I turned, tucked, and pinned that too. I took it over to my sewing machine and setup a two-needle configuration with Sulky thread (which I love). Top stitched the neck facing, outside and inside in one step! Then I top stitched the top of the neck facing to give it a cleaner line.

Step 7 - Arms again. The pattern view I chose had balloon sleeves. I had shortened them to 3/4 sleeves since I was planning on wearing this dress in the summer. More gathering and attaching the arm bands. Back to the serger. But this time I figured, just like elastics, I would stretch the arm band and try to keep the arm fabric not stretched to create the gathers....worked great.

Time to try this on again....I created a night gown. OMG. This was a night gown. I definitely have to shorten this to make it not seem so nightgown-y!

Step 8 - Hemming. After cutting off about 4 inches, which killed me, I pulled out of my Grand-MIL's stash again her hemming gauge. I cannot believe I haven't used one before! I put the dress on my dress form and around we went pinning a new hemline! I added stabilizer to the hem and pinned, re-pinned as I went. Then to the serger to finish and cut off the edges. Then to the sewing machine for two needle topstitching!