Finished Project: A Wearable BHL Elisalex Muslin

Here I am, sneaking around in the wearable muslin that has resulted from my Elisalex party dress journey, so far! I'll admit to having lost a bit of momentum when my sewing no longer had a deadline, since I skipped my company party to fly across the country and meet my new nephew! #soworthit. Now, spring is basically here and my mind is drifting off to summery sundresses and skirts, so, I've resigned myself to a slow, intermittent march on the sparkly party dress front.

That's good, because I'm not quite ready to slice into my real deal fabric just yet -- the sleeves came out weird and I'll need your help!

First, let's review. I tried to replicate the short sleeved view shown on the pattern illustration & photography, though the sleeve pattern piece was not actually made for that shorter sleeve length (BHL is fixing this). I took off a few inches from the half-sleeve length provided. I also perfected my princess seam construction technique -- not hard, but different than the weak approach I'd been trying on previous projects. I sewed the size that corresponded to my waist measurement, and did a full bust adjustment to get the chest to fit right. For the skirt, I took about 1/2" out of each side seam of the dramatic, curved hip shape, and shortened the skirt several inches (lost count), though I think it's still a bit too long. I finished the neckline, sleeve hems, and skirt hem with satin bias tape facings, and skipped adding a lining. I don't love invisible zippers, so I used a vintage regular zip in the center back.

I really like parts of this dress, but others I'm not so sure about. I love the fabric, and the front and back necklines -- actually the whole bodice (apart from the sleeves/shoulders). I like the idea of the skirt, but I'm now finding I'm just not sold on this exact shape. I'd initially been drawn to it, and I can't quite seem to come up with a better shape, so, perhaps an even more reduced hip curve would do the trick. I'm thinking that if I underline the skirt with organza, like SewHopeful did, the dramatic shape will sit more nicely and appear intentional instead of the weird vibe I'm getting now.

Here's where I need your help! as you can see in the photos, the armscye is weird. Wearing the dress, the armholes feel surprisingly tight, and the neckline slips off towards the edge of my shoulders, like the dress is trying to eject me at the shoulders. It feels too small and yet also like there's an excess of fabric all at the same time. My first idea is to make the armholes a bit bigger by adding a little to the side seams of the bodice/armhole pieces as well as the sleeves, to give me more room around the armpit and help the sleeve hang better -- but what about the shoulder? It feels sort of like I need to move the shoulder/sleeve cap seam back up onto my shoulder (somehow?!) and then, what? Would that end up moving excess fabric across the upper bodice toward the center back, and cause the back neckline to gape?

I've seen similar-looking sleeve/armpit fabric bunching in other versions of the sleeved Elisalex out in the SBC, and some bloggers note they've done a forward shoulder adjustment, and then also taken a chunk out of the back neckline. How do you know if you need a forward shoulder adjustment?

I suppose I could try this and just see what happens, but I'm skeptical! It just doesn't seem like this armhole shape wants sleeves. In the far right photo below, it looks like the sleeve cap is too voluminous for the armhole? Is that a totally separate issue? Oy!

I'm not quite sure, at this point. What do you guys think? I'm happy to wear this test version as is, but I'd hate to cut into my nicer, sparkly fabric before figuring this out. Perhaps giving it some more time and a revisit at a later date will help. Any comments, tips, or ideas you can offer are much appreciated!

Party Dress: Tips

For the past few years, read: most of my sewing career, I've been afraid of two things in particular: making full bust adjustments, and sewing princess seams. Now, by "afraid," what I really mean is lazy.

The last time I can remember sewing princess seams on anything is way back in 2013! Fitting the two curved bodice side-front pieces into the curve of the center front piece was always easier said than done. I remember practically losing my mind trying to magically ease them together (amid inadvertent pleats and rippling ...and cursing) on the fitted bodice of my Turquoise Taylor Dress. They look OK in the photos, but we all know there's often more to the story.

princess seams, c. 2013

For my current project, the Elisalex dress, I'm trying to cut the crap and I refuse to be lazy or scared. I have no idea why I did not simply Google techniques (how novel!) for sewing princess seams before, but this time I did -- and I am so glad! I found this simple tutorial and gleefully used it to produce perfectly-sewn princess-seamed bodices, one after the next, for my muslins.

The game-changers for me were: stay stitching and then clipping the curve before it's sewn. Magic!

That's all really great, but the truth is that it does not matter how lovely your princess seams are if your bust measurement exceeds that of the size you've sewn. Enter the dreaded FBA. Why "dreaded?" Because I'm lazy. This time, perhaps inspired by the ease with which I'd tackled the princess seams, I sucked it up and followed the easy tutorial on BHL's blog. ...Et voila! A bodice that fits both my bust and my waist.

BHL's tutorial

I'm happy to finally be ready (mature enough?) to step away from my sloppy, instant gratification sewing mindset, at least momentarily, and actually focus on making something that challenges my tiny little sewing skill set. And if I can do it, you probably already have can too!

I think my goal previously had been: produce a quick, cute garment! Now my goal is quality, and I mean it this time. I've seen bloggers write the same thing, but I don't think I'd truly felt it myself until now.

Have any of you found you've built unnecessary walls to avoid learning "scary" new skills? Please tell me I'm not the only one!

Party Dress: Update #2

I've still got the party dress bug!

So far, I've taken a few cracks at the Elisalex bodice and have just begun my third iteration -- yeah, y'all! This instant gratification sewist just made three muslins for a dress she's not even confident she'll have an occasion to wear anytime soon. Crazy? No! I'm patting myself on the back right now for being patient and thorough.

long sleeve / short sleeve

I'll talk more about my muslin adventures in a moment, but first wanted to share a couple of notes about the pattern from my process so far. If I'm somehow not the very last sewist on the internet to try this pattern, and you're thinking of stitching it up for the first time, you'll want to take note:

• Sleeves! One thing I noticed right away, and then again while looking at inspiration and reviews on other blogs, is that the actual sleeve options provided within the pattern do not completely match what's shown in the pattern illustrations, or the sewn examples on the page where you purchase the pattern.
  
  What's actually included is the long sleeve pattern piece, with a line to shorten it to the "short sleeve" length for Variation #2. Following that line, though, results in a sleeve that hits at the elbow. What's depicted in the illustration clearly shows a short little sleeve that ends at the upper bicep. Big difference, and a very different look, overall.
  
  
• Skirt! Similar to the sleeves, there is a discrepancy between the length of the skirt as advertised at first glance, and what the pattern pieces actually produce. These skirt pieces are huge, and result in a skirt that hits well below the knees by several inches. Meanwhile, the official pattern imagery shows a skirt ending magically at, and sometimes above, the knees.
  
  Is this drafted for women approaching 7' tall? Is the real Elisalex (pattern's namesake and model) a giant? This throws off fabric requirements (don't need as much, unless you want a midi skirt) and also means you'll be shortening the skirt, hopefully in a way that prevents re-tapering/adjusting the lower few inches to retain the pegged look towards the bottom, but keeps the fun tulip pouf at the hips. The 30"+ skirt length is listed in the finished garment measurements, but I wonder why it's not depicted accurately in the illustrations and sewn samples.

Update: As soon as I published this, I noticed BHL is finally addressing these issues! See their update here. (Thanks, ladies!)

These gripes aside, I still love the look of the pattern. I dove into bodice making, hoping to end up with a wearable muslin. I'll be the first to say that when it comes to fitting adjustments and altering patterns, I'm not very experienced. I've only ever done one FBA on a darted bodice, and otherwise tend to just take seams in "here and there," by pinching out areas on the sewn garment, once I try it on. I want to be proud of this dress, so I'm putting forth more effort this time!

1. First muslin: I bought a pretty, floral home dec. sateen by Joel Dewberry. I wanted something a little bit stiffer and heavier than muslin, to be more like my intended fashion fabric. I had grand pans to make an adorable, wearable muslin that I could perfect the fit on and then gleefully reproduce in my expensive shimmery fabric. The bust ended up a tad tight (shocker! the finished measurements list the size I cut at 1/2" smaller than my most recent bust measurement. duh), while the princess seams curving up to the armscye were bunching and too big above the bust. The waist also seemed a tad loose. Rather than add the sleeves on to see if it looked better, I tossed it aside and moved on.
2. Second muslin: I used some blah home dec. fabric I'd had leftover from a tiny catbox curtain project years ago. You know, because cats need privacy, too. I did something a little weird for this muslin: I trimmed my pattern pieces for the bodice front sections, so that the side seam, along with ~2" above and ~2" below the bust were one size smaller, leaving the apex of the bust alone.
   Then, I cut one size smaller for the front of the sleeve head, tapering to nothing at the center/top, but left the back at the original, larger size (since I wasn't making any adjustments to the bodice back).
   WTF? you're thinking. Yeah, it didn't really work out. The bust ended up too tight, still (duh, see measurement note in First Muslin), though the upper bust and shoulders, and also the waist, looked somewhat better. Sewing the sleeves on rather than omitting them may have also helped this time, but I still wasn't pleased overall. On to the next!
3. Third muslin: I unpicked my first muslin and re-cut the parts I could re-use, going down a size, so that the entire bodice is the smaller size (rather than just parts of the sleeve and front pieces being smaller). Then I closed my eyes, held my nose, and did my first  FBA on princess seams. Surprise: it was fine!
4. Fourth muslin:  Luckily, I bought a shit-ton of the home dec Joel Dewberry fabric from Grey's on sale, so this fourth version may well end up the wearable muslin of my dreams. We'll see!

Hopefully, I'll have some wearable muslin action-shots to share soon! I've got some tips I've picked up during this process to share, too, so I'll be posting those shortly. Now I just need to decide on the final fabric!

Party Dress: Update #1

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a nice holiday and you're all ready to crush 2016... in a good way. Like, be awesome and get stuff done.... Anyway! Party dress stuff.

#moodfabrics #swatches #IRL #partydressplanning #decisionsdecisions

A photo posted by Sue (@sue1656) on Dec 27, 2015 at 3:08pm PST

Swatches can look pretty different in person than on a fabric store's website! I suppose that's the whole point of ordering them, duh. Here are my photos (still not the same as seeing the real thing) of my Mood swatches. If you look back at my previous post, you can see the difference between the official photos and mine.

I want a shimmery party dress, but not a glitter-encrusted/sparkle vomit look. I'm leaning most towards the bottom right fabric, of the four shown above. It's a vaguely striped, lovely, silk brocade, which is a little expensive, and I'm on the fence as to whether I should just pull the trigger, or opt for something a bit less costly.

Here are the two other contenders I found online, in the search for something more affordable:

left / right

These alternatives are not cheap, but wouldn't hurt my wallet quite as much. I've ordered swatches of both, and the dotted (right side) fabric looks exactly she same (and pretty!) in person. As for the other fabric (left side), Harts sent me the wrong thing. I'm learning toward taking that as a sign, which, paired with how much I'm actually liking the other fabric, is pointing me toward just snapping up some (of the right side fabric) from Gorgeous Fabrics and being done with the fabric decisions.

To throw a wrench in the works (but a happy one!), silly me forgot that the date of the company holiday party that I'm sewing this dress for is very close to my nephew's anticipated due date (yay!). That means I might be scooting off to California to visit a newborn rather than attending the (sort of) glamorous work party. Either way, I'm going to sew the shit out of this shimmery dress, and, at the very least, wear it out to a nice dinner somewhere!

Stay tuned for an actual sewing update very soon -- I'm onto muslin number three and have some more details to share.