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Thursday, August 8, 2013

The Zebra Dress Tutorial Begins

So many of you said yes to me doing a tutorial on the dress I wore to the zoo ball, so as promised, here we go.
You can see that the dress is very fitted. The most important step of the process is to have a good fit before any style lines are drawn in. Now I know that we are not all the same shape, but I thought that for the first step of the tutorial, I would show you how I fitted the top in order to achieve the fit that I wanted.
Remember, we are starting with Butterick 5678 as our base pattern.
For this type of garment, I especially like a center back seam as it gives me one more seam for fitting. Very important for the raised neckline that we will be doing later.
 I also went ahead and straightened out the shirttail hem of the pattern.
 The top is not a horrible fit, but it can fit better.
 In the above picture, you can see that there is excess fabric in the upper chest area. I have it pinched in the picture below.
 I also want to take out the extra fabric just under my bust.
 I am very small across the back, so I will use the back princess seam to fit the back.
 I've pinned in the front princess seam so that it is very fitted over the bust.
I pinned in the princess line seam above the bust and it has a much smoother fit now.
 The back princess line seam has been pinned in. I also pinned out a little on the side seam at the waist.
I'm happy with the fit. Now I need to mark where I have placed my pins. I use a piece of black wax.
Be sure to mark both sides before removing the pins. Once the seamm allowances have been readjusted, we'll be ready to go on to the next step
of drafting the collar. As you can see, the collar began as the collar that I did for this top. You can find that tutorial here, http://www.sewnews.com/blogs/sewing/2013/05/28/rhonda-buss-the-raised-collar-neckline-tutorial/
Next Tuesday I will show you how to draw in the style lines and draft the cap sleeve.



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13 comments:

  1. I love that dress. Not that I could carry it off - but I certainly can with the top above. I will definitely try that out as I love the scoop on that neckline.

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    1. I think you would look sensational in the scoop neck and raised neckline top

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  2. Me encanta, la primera vez que lo vi me quedé enamorada de él. Es una gran idea hacer este tutorial.
    Besos

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    1. I'm so happy. I am planning to do a denim version of the dress for this tutorial, a shorter version though.

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  3. So glad to see the tutorial begin! I will be following along. Hard to believe it all started with a shirt pattern. Beautiful!

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  4. It's certainly an interesting exercise fitting by yourself - quite possible with camera's - lots of taking on and off, and lots of dressmakers yoga reaching awkward parts like the back! The denim dress will be an interesting take, looking forward to seeing that :)

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    1. I've been fitting myself for so long that it has become just a natural part of sewing. I bought the denim and a great zipper last night. Now I'm pumped!!

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  5. Rhonda, what an inspired project, on so many levels! I just love how you started with a blouse pattern, not even a particularly fitted blouse pattern, and morphed it into a fitted, slinky dress with such unusual seaming!

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  6. Thanks for posting this Rhonda. It is really interesting how you got such a sculptural dress out of a skirt pattern.

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  7. I truly love this dress and am trying to make the top. I put it on Stitcher's Guild under critique.
    I would love to see how you took this top and added the skirt part to it. I love trying out ideas in drafting patterns.

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    1. Hi Ann. I am planning to get back to the tutorial next week. I have had a number of things that have taken me away from the project, but I want to get back to it as I want to wear the shorter version. So glad you like it :)

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