Friday, September 28, 2012

In Progress: Little Black Dress

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I was pretty proud and excited yesterday, because after four months, nine (ten?) muslins, and approximately a zillion fittings, the body of my black dress design is done.  I've become a cautionary tale at school - "Fitting can be really difficult - just look at Cory, she's on her eighth muslin!" - but the results are so, so worth it.  To say I love it would be an understatement: it fits absolutely perfectly in the bust and waist, the pockets are just what I envisioned, the neckline is beautiful... and it will just look better in real fabric.

We had to do a lot of fitting work in the underbust area since my ribcage is much smaller than my full bust measurement, but all of those little tweaks really paid off.  I'm also really happy with the pockets - I added some extra width to the body of the skirt near the side seam, then blended it back down into the original skirt shape to make the pockets stand out a bit more - and I think that the exaggerated shape at the hip helps to balance out the full bust and emphasizes the waist a bit, too.

 Now all I have to do is make some puffed sleeves, and the patternwork is done!  I'm also planning to make a little skirt version in some grey wool I have in my stash.  And this way I'll be able to jump into the black dress construction class next week too.  A very encouraging way to end the week!