Sew for Victory progress

There's a rare sighting on my blog today - an actual muslin. I can only bear to make them about once a year, so consider yourself lucky Sew for Victory dress. 

Even though some of the sewing is a bit slapdash, the muslin is very close to being the fit I was after. It's a tiny bit tight on me, but a perfect fit on Angie (my dummy) and she's about a 90% accurate clone of my body. My bust isn't quite the same as the dummy's, and my back, although as narrow as Angie's, is a bit more flabby fleshy. I decided I just needed an inch adding across the bodice section. 

Once this is divided across all the seam allowances, we're actually talking teeny, tiny amounts, so I'm just going to decrease the bodice seam allowances by an eighth of an inch each. This is what I ended up doing with my Oolong dress after I cut the pattern a size too small by mistake (doh!) and it worked fine. I've also taken two inches off the length.

The only other change I'm making to the dress is to put a long 22" zip down the centre back piece instead of having a side zip. This is partly because of my loathing of side zips, but also for a more practical reason. It's actually a lot easier getting the bloody thing on and off with a long centre zip. In my experience I've found that with a fitted side-zipped dress or top, if you have any kind of bust then it's really difficult to get the dress over your boobs without fear of ripping it. As the fabric I'm using is pretty thin, I didn't want to take any chances, so a seam allowance was added to the back piece to allow for a zip.

As of today, my fashion fabric pieces are all cut out and underlined with silk cotton, just waiting to be sewn together.  You never know, this time next week, I could be in possession of a darling Du Barry dress!  Wish me luck. x