Catch-up Part 2

Hello again,


As mentioned before, I am playing catch-up with my posts.  Last episode was where I was feeling accomplished with completing a pillow mending project with a snazzy patch.  This week focuses on on my learning lessons of my project formerly know as Peach Blossom that will now be known as the "Forever Project."


Since my previous post involving this project where I figured out my Full Bust Adjustment, I did make a clean mock-up of the front.  Now it looks perfect...well the front does at least.



Following my clean mock-up, my next original goal for this project (feel free to laugh) was to get the entire dress mocked up in time for my Artist Salon Vacation.  This way all that I needed were supplies to merely stitch up and go...  That plan was then downgraded to simply get the continuous problem area of the top's back figured out.  That plan was then downgraded to "I don't care, I need to pack and go" plan.  I took my Light board, Jumbo Paper, Sharpees & Muslin with me, amongst many other things that made it appear that I was moving in for a month.  I felt that I just needed to try this on with extra eyes to help me see what it actually looked like on me.  I simply could not figure out why the front was perfect but the back was a mess.



Lesson 1:  Grade your padding.  I don't remember when exactly this thought occurred to me, but it did.  I never graded Dolly's padding from the bust/ underbust to the "Gut" that I created.  I am pretty sure this is why I continually had issues with the back.   With realizing this, I added the previously removed length back in. So that now the bottom seams of the front and back actually match.



Lesson 2: The importance of the Iron & knowing where it is.  Unless ironed, it is difficult to tell which wrinkles are tattle-tale wrinkles of problems & which ones aren't.  It is extremely challenging to remove wrinkles using your hands, a scrap piece of fabric & a can of extra stiff starch that only made the trip to keep an old favorite paper sun hat in shape.  What can I say, I was bound and determined and desperate.  However I managed well enough.  We looked off and on but by the end of the trip the Iron was still MIA.


Lesson 3: Do not measure yourself.  I've been told this before and should know better.  This is no excuse but the previous time that I measured myself and had someone else measure me, I wasn't that off.  So this past time of measuring myself I figured that I would be OK...  I wasn't. My second pair of eyes was wondering why the bottom of my mockup was soo far out.  So I had my second pair of eyes measure me the next day and on average I was off around 1".  Afterwards I made more mockups around where I should be until I got it just about where it should be.

By the end of the Artist Salon Vacation, I believe I've worked out almost all of the kinks of the top.  The final foreseeable problem to figure out involves the side dart.  It arises from the swing out for my larger waist.  The above portion doesn't meet up with the below portion of the top nor the edge of the Top Back.  So this will take a lil more experimenting to figure out how to correct this.  But that is the next thing on my list for this "Forever Project" of Colette's Pastille.

Until next time...