Putting it into practice

Full Bust Adjustments are my new best friend!  And what better way to celebrate our new friendship than by using the skill to sew a new dress!!

Some time ago I found this gorgeous fabric on the chuck out table of my favourite fabric store for $4 a metre!!!  Bargain!!!:

Its a lovely light cotton, and the stripes are about 1 inch

I just knew when I saw it that it would make a fabulous shirtwaister dress, so on my next trip to Sydney I stopped by my favourite button store All Buttons Great and Small and bought these beauties:

Every time I go to Sydney I make sure I take a swatch of fabric with me,

just in case I have the time to spare to go to this store.

And then I looked through my (growing) pattern collection and found this divine creation:

Perfect!

As an aside - I just love vintage mail order patterns when they come in their original envelopes.  Look at the envelope that this one came in:

I just love the history!  You can see that this lovely pattern was posted to Mrs Gordon P Folkins in Kings County, New Brunswick, Canada, from Toronto, on the 9th of February 1955.  And now its made its way across the world to little ol'me in Australia :)  I wonder what Mrs Folkins would think of that?  I wonder what her first name was?

Anyway!

I traced the bodice front pattern piece onto calico and did a Full Bust Adjustment.  I then pinned it onto my headless helper and re-did the vertical dart.

Yep, you've now seen my underwear...

Then I grabbed some (totally ugly) fabric out of my stash and made up a mock bodice.  I've yet to try it on but it looks pretty good on my headless helper!

I didn't make the sleeve cuffs, I just folded back the sleeves so you get the idea

Yep, I ran out of ugly fabric, but at least this way you can see the cool triangular back yoke!  And I also really like the gathering of the bodice back at the yoke and the waist.

By the look of it I'll be cutting the sleeves down before I sew the cuffs on - I like the length they are like this, so thats a bit over an inch shorter than they would be if I left them as is.

Looks pretty good huh!  And will fit SOOOO much better now that I've done the FBA.

Now to play with the stripy fabric so I can get some cool effects!  I'm thinking vertical stripes on the bodice and the skirt, and then horizontal stripes on the collar and the back yoke.  Not sure which way to go with the belt yet...  diagonal or vertical?

Any suggestions?

Beccie
xxx