I was so excited to make this pattern. I received it from the generous Angela of RiAnge Creations, after I put out a plea for the OOP Simplicity 2591. I wanted to make a vaguely nautical version like Adey and Farah had, but now there's a whole lotta wrong going on with this dress. I don't know squat about fitting, but even I can tell that there's something out of whack with this bodice: it's so tight across the underbust that I can barely lift my arms and doing up the zipper involves some serious contortions, but there is a big poof of fabric above the bust. It looks like my chest collapsed in upon itself. (I cropped off my head in all the following photos because I'm having a lazy hair day.)
The tragic part is that I used up almost all of this length of shwe shwe from Cape Town, and now I don't have enough left to recut, so I'll have to manage some kind of alterations on this bodice as is. I'm thinking that I should have cut a larger size in the front bodice and then done a SBA. Sound reasonable? For the more experienced sewers out there, what do you think would help at this point?
You can see in this photo that my upper arms are being strangled, but there's a good 6L of extra volume in that upper chest. Argh.
I am super happy with the zipper however. I hand basted so that I could match the pattern, and I think it's pretty damn good, if I do say so myself.
Oh Simplicity 2591, you will be the death of me. How's that for melodrama?
**Oh, BTW, two posts in one day is due to a combination of holiday (Yay Canada Day!), my man taking my son out for Canada Day Celebrations all afternoon and my feverish daughter napping for 3+ hours.
silly pattern is being a bit difficult? I actually found the fit on this one a little weird - i cut a 10 (i think) and had to take it out on the sides, (especially under the bust area).
ReplyDeletenot sure how you could fix it now...I wonder if you could re-sew the princess seams in the baggy chest area with larger seam allowances?
thanks for the shout-out, by the way.
I've already done a bit of letting out here, taking in there.... I *will* get it working somehow, but I think I should really spend a few days reading about fit before I waste any more one-of-a-kind fabrics from my travels! ;)
ReplyDeleteOh, no! Unfortunately, post-cutting SBAs are pretty tricky. You could let the princess seams out (below the bust) to see if that helps there. I'd do that first, in any case.
ReplyDeleteThe pulling on the sleeve might be caused by the armscye being too low (the armpit of the dress being too far below your armpit, basically). Unfortunately, this is also an easy fix in the pattern but harder to fix after the fact.
After you loosen the princess seams, maybe see if pulling up on the shoulders helps with the gaping bust and the binding sleeve. If so, you could take out the sleeve and take in the shoulder seam (probably have to drop the neckline in the process). Although that might mess with your zipper :(.
Caveat: I am not a trained fitter and there may be much better ways to address this. This is just what I would try. Assuming my fabric was too precious to toss, anyway. Good luck! (oh, and if you don't think taking in the shoulders is a good idea, you could see if pleating or darting of the neckline can help with the bubbliness...
oh no, I know how excited you were about this dress, what a shame. I really hope you get it sorted, best of luck.x x x x
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the input! I am going to give myself a few days away from it; you know how the initial disappointment of a fail makes it seem worse than it actually is. Maybe when I go back to it next week, it will only need a bit of seam tweaking. I hope. (I've never had to make a muslin before, because I choose such easy patterns and I have a pretty typical pear-shape, so I just cut one size larger on the bottom et voila.)
ReplyDeleteI have a wide collar drafted, so I may end up having to do some neckline darting, but the collar may hide the worst of it. I'll post the results!
Hi there! I know it's been a while since this post, but I'm planning on making this dress as well and came across your blog in researching any possible fitting problems. I think you could have solved your issue by using your high bust measurement (measure directly under your armpits) and cut out that corresponding size since it seems the problem is that the shoulder and chest fit you large. This pattern is supposed to be tight fitting and yet many have said that it still runs a bit large. So given the fact that you wanted some wiggle room and the pattern tends to run a size large, you need to cut a smaller size than you think you need. Hopefully that helps should you wish to make this dress again!
ReplyDelete