Reducing Skirt Waist Ease

You all likely know that you can use your Dress Kit Skirt pattern to sew stand-alone skirts.  But in doing so, we need to address the waist ease that's allowed in the pattern.  Keep in mind that the waist ease in the bodice is 1" (2.5 cm), so when you sew the skirt together with the bodice for either a one or two piece dress, the skirt waist also needs to end up with 1" (2.5 cm) of waist ease, which of course, it does.

But now you'd like to use the skirt pattern as a stand-alone skirt.  The 1" (2.5 cm) of wearing ease is too much.  You are going to want to reduce the finished amount of ease to approximately 1/2" (1.3 cm).  When the darts are sewn in position, that's plenty of ease to tuck in a blouse or lightweight sweater.

Here's a short video to actually show you the process.

As I've said many times, how much wearing ease you actually end up with is very personal preference.  You may want more or less ease, but at least now you know the process.

Also remember that there are written instructions in your Dress Kit instruction book on page 29.

Happy fitting & sewing!

Sleeve Length - Is yours right for your arm?

Oh my, I must have measured too incorrectly!  My elbow dart is not
pointed toward my elbow.  How do I easily fix the elbow dart position
and length of the sleeve now that my pattern is already drawn?

I've had more than one customer write and ask for help.  This may have
happened with you.  The best way to explain the easy tune-up is in the
video below.

Happy Sewing & Fitting!
Glenda...the Good Stitch!

Speaking of Copying Ready-to-Wear...

In last week's post, I shared with you the gorgeous dress that Caroline (from Chile) copied from a Dolce & Gabbana original using her perfect-fitting SFD bodice and skirt.  You all know that when you have a tried and true basic bodice and skirt pattern, that you really can copy expensive ready-to-wear designs and know they are going to fit.
Inspiration...let's take a look at this dress.

this Inspiration Dress from Lafayette 148 sells for $598

And the woman who copied it sews her own clothes, though not with Sure-Fit Designs.  Her name is Carolyn - and her blog is Dairy of a Sewing Fanatic.  You might be interested in seeing her accomplishments.

Here's both the front and back views and she looks great in this dress.

If you'd like to read Carolyn's blog for this specific dress creations, Click Here.
How easy this would be to draw the same design lines on your SFD bodice & skirt.

I hope this inspires you to look to ready-to-wear for ideas and sew with confidence.

Happy Sewing!
Glenda...the Good Stitch! 

The Perfect Fit!

One of our SFD customers, Caroline from Santiago Chile, is a perfectionist. And look at the results!  Caroline wanted her SFD Dress Kit bodice and skirt fit to be just perfect and 'perfect' she achieved.  She'd already sewn a couple of test bodices, and was basically happy with the results.  But she sent me this photo asking how to remove the final issue, being the small fold in the lower third of the armscye.  (See the orange arrow).  Other than this small fold, she'd achieve almost total perfection - wouldn't you agree?

My instructions to her were to fold this small amount out of the armhole and let it open up in the side bust dart.  But when I received her email I was on a short vacation...and she was heading to a wedding the next day.  So she went ahead and sewed her fashion dress without this change.  She copied a Dolce & Gabbana designer dress and off to the wedding she went.

 The D & G designer original.

She didn't have time for the custom belt, but it was coming...just after the wedding.  Isn't this setting in Santiago beautiful - just perfect for a wedding.

But after the wedding, Caroline went ahead with the armhole and bust dart refinement.  Even though this next photo is a little fuzzy, you can see that she overlapped the amount of the fold in the armscye and let it open up in the side bust dart.  See the orange arrows.

This process shortened the front armscye, which means the sleeve cap front needed to be shortened as well so that there wasn't too much to ease into the armscye.  Here's a look at her finished bodice pattern pieces.

 

Here's the final 'muslin' - fit to perfection.

Then, she hand-crafted the complimentary belt.

The result is stunning.  Wouldn't you agree it fits her to a 'T'?

If you'd prefer to watch a short video on making this pattern refinement, please click on the video below.

Here's one last look at this awesome setting.

I know she'd love to hear your praise...just leave a comment below...she deserves lots of cudos!

Happy Sewing!
Glenda...the Good Stitch!