Sometimes the Results Surprise Me

I puffy heart love this dress so much.

The really funny thing is that I wasn't on board with it about halfway through the process. It felt tight, and clingy, and it was looking all weird and funny on the dress form. I was having my doubts as to whether it would fit without making me anxious, because it was so clingy in the waist when I first tried it on. 

But after letting it hang for 24 hours (AKA, following the directions), and then hemming it, it was absolutely perfect. Nice drape, and it has a nice small flare out when I twirl (a very important feature in a dress).

Pattern: Vogue 9199

This dress definitely lived up to the pattern name. No ripping out, and aside from fit anxiety, no major swearing or yelling.

I had it finished in practically an evening, and could have knocked it off the next day if it weren't for the need to let the dress hang for 24 hours -- and such a critical step that was! It's not bias cut, but because of how the side panels are cut and attached, it really did need time to settle. 

Pattern notes say that the pattern is close fitting through the bust, but in typical My Body Is Weird fashion, I found it to be slightly too large in the bust, but fitted through the waist. 

Typically I'll do pattern sloping when this problem happens -- my waist feels so far from proportion that it's not even funny -- but I was hesitant on this pattern because of the side patterns. I'm very glad I made the modifications that I did:

• Kept pattern sizing at 14 for front and back sections
• Cut to size 16 for side panels in front and back
• Reduced seam allowance to 3/8 on side panels, where they attach to the front and back panels

The 16 would have been too large overall, but these modifications gave me the ease that I needed through the waist. 

I'd like to try this again, and possibly try out a sleeveless version. It should be easy to modify for sleeveless, and that would give me another option for summer dresses.

Fabric: Black and white floral, printed polyester jersey (the first Mood order)

Love the print on this one. It looked exactly like what I wanted the finished product to be. 

Kind of a pain to work with. It was super sticky for pinning and sewing, and it wouldn't hang right on the dressform without a lot of fussing from me. It was nerve-wracking, and I kept reminding myself that unlike my dressform, I do not have fuzzy skin that grabs things. 

My machine was not on board with this fabric. I typically do a modified zigzag stitch on knits, but every time I tried that with this dress, it just kept getting caught in the feeder. I think the fabric was simply to sticky to let the zigzag work. On the upside, that means that the basic straight stitch should be adequate to hold the seams nicely. 

Relatedly: The amount of fuzz I cleaned out from the machine after I finished was astonishing. That also may have influenced the bobbin issues. It was like using a Biore strip -- fascinating, but disgusting.