Once I made little darts, tucking in the spare fabric, the area laid flat.
The bodice needs to be raised a half inch as well - rather scandalous as is!
I tried to pinch out that fabric on the pattern, and made yet another muslin of the bodice, but this "alteration", if you can call it that, made the front bodice piece shorter, and it became too short to ease into the side bodice piece. Argh. Despite scouring Fit For Real People, I'm not yet sure how to fix this one.
Combined with the extra width at the waist (big thanks for your help on figuring that one out!), this project is becoming quite a pain. I became stressed out and sad whenever I walked into my sewing room and saw the pile of fabric.
I'm going to have to put it aside for the meantime, because I have to make a Christmas dress for upcoming holiday events. I had a pattern in mind, until I saw the Presserfoot.com ladies' idea for making this Milly dress with a Burda pattern:
I couldn't stop thinking about it! I almost ordered the gold lace, but spotted this Carolina Herrera copper fabric at Emma One Sock, and fell in love. The fabric's on its way.
This will be my first foray into sewing with Burda patterns. I am concerned about sizing, and was even trepidatious about downloading and printing the pattern, but that process was painless. The dress printed onto 25 pages (I used the backs of scrap paper) and the pieces are taped together matching numbers printed on each page. So easy!
I'm first going to muslin this dress too, but with essentially only 2 pattern pieces, this one should be stress-free. I hope?
24 comments:
The Christmas dress fabric is divine, and that pattern is a great use for it. On your Vogue dress I have the same problem with gaping necklines and do the same fix as you. To make the princess seam longer you should be able to cut into it in a few places and fan it out, filling in the gaps with pattern paper. Some experimentation will be needed to figure out where best to cut and how much to spread. Anyway do the copper dress first, you sound all geared up to go on that one and I ca'nt wait to see it!
I have never tried a Burda pattern either. When researching books about sewing your own clothes I read a lot about the "Fit for Real People" book, but I flipped through it in B&N and most of the pictures and examples were of two people using the pattern to fit. I don't have the luxury of a helper unless my Mom is in town so I didn't get much out of that book. I got Nancy Zieman's book "Busy Woman's fitting book" and it has some great suggestions on fitting. It used the pivot and slide ways of altering a pattern though. I love Kristy's blog too! I hope you have success with the pattern and I look forward to your next post. ps sorry if this is all over the place.
Ooh that is lovely - the dress and the fabric. I'm eager to see how you get on as I'd love to make something like this but am a bit intimidated by such delicate fabric (my seam ripper is my best friend). I just used a Burda pattern for the first time and it was fine. It's good having instant access to images of other people's versions for motivation when you need it.
Could your gaping issue be due to bias stretch at the neckline as you manipulate the fabric to sew it?
Great minds must think a like!
I've just finished a version of this pattern, though I wasn't quite up to using lace.
I've posted it on the blog. I promise it was definitely stress free, although just watch for tent-like issues if you have to complete a bigger FBA (mine was 2").
Can't wait to see how both the dresses turn out!
~Alana
I don't blame you for setting the first dress muslin aside. Sometimes when you take a break, you come back refreshed with a few new ideas anyway.
I love your inspiration Xmas dress, and the fabric you sourced for your version is amazing! I can't wait to see this dress.
The fabric looks lovely, I am very envious! I've done one burdastyle pattern and I found the pattern instructions were terrible! I hope you have better luck with your dress.
I'm not sure how you did that FBA to begin with :-). But what you should have done here was to add more gathers in the -bottom- of the cup piece but not add to the neckline at all. And then also add to the length of those cups. So the easiest way would be to draw a line, starting at the same points at both side seams and center front, with the seam swinging out from the original according to your cup size (I add an inch for a D cup). Don't need to do anything else here, this is actually a fairly easy one.
yeah, you need a break from the muslin. this copper dress will get you some good mojo that you can use later =-)
i have done one burda pattern and i definitely had to adjust a little bit. it was my very first sewn project and i figured it out. so i am sure whatever problems you run across you can fix. i talked about it on the blog a bit.
http://lachapstickfanatique.blogspot.com
OOOOhh, that fabric is sooo pretty! I have yet to try out Burda, either, but most people seem to have a lot of success with their patterns. I hope you have success as well, I will stay tuned to see how it all works out!
Okay, that lace is gorgeous! I can totally see that dress on you - perfect for the holidays. I think we started sewing around the same time and I've sewn several burda projects without issue. I think with all of your experience you are going to be more than okay. Good luck and I can't wait to see the finished dress! :)
Love the lace. I've sewn several Burda patterns and the sewing instructions are rough going. There's a presumption that you already know what you're doing. You should be fine though. Can't wait to see the finished product.
Oh my! What gorgeous fabric! I've had good luck with the few Burda patterns I've sewn.
It's so frustrating to solve one fitting problem and cause another one in the process! Sometimes backing away from the project is the best move. Good luck!
I always have to shorten the diagonal of a wrap or surplice neckline, sometimes to an extreme degree. It's so annoying!
That is going to be a simply gorgeous and elegant dress!
Good luck with V1027... I'm not very good with fitting either so I don't think you want any pointers from me. However, that fabric is absolutely gorgeous!! Mmmm... it's going to be a fantastic dress!
So glad you love this dress as much as I do. I can't wait to see how it turns out. I love working with burda patterns myself so hopefully you do too.
And that fabric is SO great.
You should be able to solve that problem by slashing from the neckline to (but not through) the bust point on the seam, leaving a "hinge" from which you can overlap the pattern at the neckline by the required amount. This will change the shape of the seamline but not the length. You can do this in darted patterns too, by slashing to the bust point then through an existing dart (bust, waist or shoulder), overlapping the gap in the neckline and spreading the existing dart to compensate. I think it's a fairly common thing to do on deep v-necks. I'm sure they discuss the "slash and spread" technique in the Fit for Real People book, if not you should be able to find info on the internet to help you along.
In sewing, you can also ease the neckline (which is cut on the bias) onto a narrow piece of ribbon or straight grain fabric to keep it from stretching out.
Hope this works!
Just a quick note on your neckline alteration - it shouldn't make the princess seam shorter, only the neckline. Your alteration should effectively take a triangle shape out of your pattern, the base at the gapiest part of the neckline, and the apex at the bust point. Mz Whitney above explains it well!
Oh, I'm sorry you're feeling stressed and sad about your red dress, yes definitely set it aside until you feel better about it. But your new fabric is totally divine. I love the simplicity of the design you've chosen for it, this will set off this complex print beautifully!
I agree with the others, take a break from the red one and come back when you're feeling refreshed. Good luck with the Burda dress, I love the lace! The gold is wonderfully festive. (I've only used Burda envelope patterns, never a downloaded one!)
The dress looks like it's coming along well. It's likely that even though you're new, remember that any experience sewer was a novice at one point like yourself. Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work.
I love your inspiration Xmas dress, and the fabric you sourced for your version is amazing! I can't wait to see this dress.
You may have already changed your mind on this project, I just found your blog and am posting 3 months later...
BUT! I have Claire Schaffer's Couture Sewing Secrets, and she fixes this problem by gathering the extra fabric at the neck and steaming out the ease. Not sure what your end fabric will be, but if this is the muslin fabric you may be able to steam away all your problems! (if only that were always the case.)
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