I’m sure this post will jinx it. But things are (now) moving along nicely with my Cambie dress. *
There was a moment a couple of nights ago when it all seemed to be going wrong – I had made the full-skirt version and suddenly the niggling voice in my head was deafening…’you’ll look like a meringue, you’ll look like a meringue.’ It was right, and I should have paid attention a week ago. Mr Saz tried to entertain me with amusing tales but I was screaming at myself inside and trying to figure out if I could re-cut for the A-line version.
The skirt came off. The gathers came out. The seams were picked out. The skirt was hacked apart. And now, I have version A, with a much smaller skirt and one that is more suited to my shape. Yay!
And the most important thing I have learnt with this dress – trust your muslin. (Actually, I am going to start calling it a toile, because I’m not American and I only recently found out that we have a different word.) Trust your toile. And trust the friends who helped you fit it. It seemed to me that there were some pretty serious alterations going on. Pattern pieces were cut with entirely new angles. Lines went in different directions. I never expected to need so many changes to the fit, but it is going to be totally worth it. This dress fits perfectly – when I think know about how it would look if I had made it exactly to the pattern pieces I shudder.
I just have the lining to sew, which I will now do with total confidence that it’s not going to be a mess and huge waste of lovely fabric, and then some little finishing bits. And I still have 10 days to go, so I’m letting my mind wander a little onto my next sewing project…
*Yep, if you look at this picture and think that one of the sleeves is sewn together with the seam allowances on the wrong-side, you’d be right. Sewing too late at night is to blame.
sazmakes 