When I made the muslin, it looked like a hospital gown to me. It was so huge and long! I picked a Medium based on my measurements but I eventually took in 4 inches total from the sides which put me into a Small. I also shortened it by 6 inches! (I am short but I normally shorten by 3 inches.) Muslins are usually very unattractive garments so I did not let the hospital gown look dissuade me. I had purchased this beautiful fabric at NY Elegant in NYC (40th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues). I love the print and colors. It is a drapey rayon which I felt would be perfect for this dress.
Despite my misgivings about the silhouette for my figure, I do not regret going outside my comfort zone - something I need to do more often. It is a very comfortable dress, perfect for those hot humid days. I do love the split sleeves with ties. I also love that it has inseam pockets - yay!
I think the shirt tail hem adds another element of fun and interest to this dress. I hemmed it to knee level at the front:
But the higher shaped sides add a little pizzazz to it:
As recommended by others who have made this pattern, I omitted the center front neckline placket. I also raised the neckline all around by 1 7/8 inches.
What do you think of my beautiful necklace? It was lovingly hand made by my very dear sewing friend, Vivian, who gave it to me as a gift some time ago. She is one talented lady! Her eye for what beads go with other beads is unbelievable. It is the perfect necklace for this dress.
Here you can see the very loose fitting design of this dress:
The pattern includes a neck binding piece that you attach and slipstitch but I decided to use bias tape. It is the prepackaged single fold bias tape you can find at JoAnn's. I like the clean finish of it.
On my figure, even though the dress was loose fitting, I found I still needed to do a full bust adjustment to make it hang properly. The full bust adjustment also reduced some of the extra fabric under the sleeve since I had to add a dart. You can find instructions on how to make this alteration in the book by Palmer Pletsch, Fit for Real People. The full bust adjustment always has the effect of lowering the dart too much for me so I must either redraw the dart to point to the correct spot or I must raise the whole dart. In this case, I redrew the dart since there was no room to raise it any further due to the kimono type sleeve. Since I butchered the pattern so much, I traced the altered pattern onto fresh paper.
I love this dress and look forward to wearing it often during the hot humid days of summer!
