Wow Dress!

I’ve called this my Wow Dress because I think it is pretty ‘Wow!’
It’s not perfect but I’ll get to that later. I wanted to do this glorious Wacky Animal Print Jardin Stretch Cotton Sateen Dress Fabric from Minerva Crafts justice so spent time sewing and fitting my muslin.

I had made up the Burda 7557 pattern in an American size 14, according to my measurements. It was perfect around the bust but I took it in down the sides, over the hips, and lengthened the back darts.
The dress is an a-line with a top section separate to the skirt. I noticed that I would have to pay particular attention to my dart placement across the join. I went back and checked my traced pattern and saw that I hadn’t been quite as accurate as I could have been in transferring the darts.
A fellow blogger sewmanju mentioned that using stretch cotton might mean I had to take the finished dress in further and boy was she absolutely right! Thankfully I had took her advice and only basted my side seams when working on the real thing. I did indeed take the stretch cotton version another 2cm down both of the sides and ALSO take in and lengthen the front darts over my stomach.

So, with no further ado. Ta dah!

Here are a few details. I top stitched the turned under bias edging in orange and I think I pulled it off.
I’d picked up a good tip from making a True Bias Sutton blouse a few weeks ago. Once I’d sewn up the side seams I went back and over stitched again just under the arm pit to secure the seam allowances flat.

Time spent lining up my darts paid off.

And the fit looked great on my dress form, from the bust down, and the zip looked great. However it was slowly dawning on me that the top half of the dress was not fitting as close as it should.

I was really happy with the insides too.

Whilst posing the dress looked absolutely fine.

But I spent the night in it on Sunday and it’s definitely too big around the neckline and across the shoulders. It got worse throughout the night with rather too much bra strap and cleavage showing going on. Not that I’m adverse to cleavage showing – when intentional.
I could have kept this to myself and pretended a perfect fit but if someone else learns from my experience, well that’s got to be worthwhile.

So what have I learnt from this make? Loads!

1. A fitted dress will show inexperience more than a looser style!
2. Be accurate in tracing off.
3. When using stretch cotton consider going down a whole size as a starting point.
4. Make a muslin in a similar fabric.
5. Consider the measurement across your ‘high’ bust as well as your bust measurement.
6. Consider a smaller size and attempt a ‘full bust adjustment’. I’ve read about these but they sound scary!

But don’t let this put you off. I’m even more determined to have another go at this pattern

Meanwhile I’m going to go back a put a couple of small darts in the front neckline. Not a recommended solution but I think I can get away with it due to the fabric print. After that I’ll unpick the top 6 inches of the zip and take in a whole inch at the top, grading out to nothing.
Then at least it’ll be wearable.

I still love my Wow Dress.

Thanks to Minerva Crafts for the fabric and pattern.

Love, Lucie xx.