April 2015 MAGAM Finally Finished!

I'm a few days late in posting April's MAGAM Challenge - but not without a good reason!  Here's the finished garment - Serendipity Studio's Monique Dress.

This pattern gave me all kinds of headaches.  Here's the first muslin - the bust darts were way outta wack.

I pinned in the bust darts to make the fit a little better...

Modified the pattern for the bust changes:

The made Muslin #2.  Fit was much better, but a little bit too fitted...

So I decided to let out the bottom dart and change it to gathers instead.  I was happier with this but then when I actually tried on the muslin (instead of having the dress form do the work), I didn't like the placement for the waistband - it was way, way to high and looked more like an empire waist dress.

So I added 2.5 inches to the overall length of the bodice.  Here's a comparison of the original pattern on the right with my lengthened and modified pattern on the left.

Lengthened pattern front piece comparisons.  I ended up moving the bust dart again after this pattern was altered.

After all of these tries, my garbage bin was getting pretty full!

Here's the final muslin.  Still not happy with it, but at this point I was fed up and just decided to cut it out and go for it.

My side seams are a bit wonky.  See how they are pointing to the front?  I know - only a seamstress would actually notice this, but it bugs me.  And I don't like the armsyce shape either.  Nice and rounded in the front, but a bit to straight in the back.

The loop braid I added at the waistline looks nice and I wanted to add some to the hemband as well.

Here's what the loop braid looks like.  After stopping by 4 different fabrics stores in the course of a week, I finally learned that this particular braid is no longer manufactured.  I didn't want to wait to find some on e-bay or etsy, so I just finished the hem band without it.

Back view.   

My lining fabric is a bit of a mish mash.  The bodice lining is from an old curtain and the waistband and skirt linings are a polyester.  I trimmed all of the seam edges with ric rac and used bias tape to finish off the armholes and neckline.

And I just happened to have the right color green zipper in my stash too.  What are the chances of that!!

Of course this was another stashbustin dress.  All fabrics, trims, zipper, etc were from the stash.  With four yards for this dress, my YTD total is: 27.25 yards.

Happy sewing everyone!

Star