February MAGAM Challenge Complete!

I am thrilled with my finished February MAGAM garment!  This month's theme was Frankenpattern - which basically means either marrying two patterns together or changing an existing pattern in someway.  I opted to combine two different patterns together.

Using the top portion of Simplicity 1607 and the bottom portion of New Look 6224 - this is what I came up with.

I didn't care for the original skirt that came with the top portion of this dress and think this circular style looks much better.

I didn't start out very good on the top portion from the beginning.  As you can see below, I completely missed the mark on lining up the celtic motifs at the side seams.  I knew this would drive me crazy so luckily I had enough fabric to cut a new back piece.  

The straps weren't as hard to assemble as they look either.  Below are all of the strap pieces cut out, interfaced and lined up at the shoulder seams.  After reading other reviews on PatternReview.com, I opted to interface every single piece instead of just the underside of each one.  Then, on each side seam, I wrote in pencil either "F" for Front or "B" for Back.  This came in very handy during the construction process.

After sewing the shoulder seams together and trimming, you then sew the straps to their corresponding facing piece.  A trick I do is to use a red pin at the starting and stopping points of sewing.  As I'm sewing along, I know when I come to a red pin that some sort of "action" is needed - either turn a corner, start or stop.  In this case, the red pins indicated "stop sewing".  You can see below my red pins.

Here's one of the straps sewn together.

Next - trim, turn and press.

Next, sew the other shoulder seam together.  Once this is sewn, you interlace the other strap thru this one and sew the same shoulder seam on that piece.  Then, sew the straps to the bodice piece and your top portion is almost done!

I was quite impressed with the twirl factor - not too bad!

Back view looks pretty good.  I could have taken it in a smidgen, but I didn't want it too tight so I think this is almost perfect.

Close-up of the front.

Close-up of the back.

The outside of the dress looked so pretty, I decided to make the inside look pretty too.  I thought the sharp contrast of the blue lining on the bodice with the white lining on the bottom looked too similar to Snow White, so I decided to add a little bit of trim between the two to soften it up a little bit.

This trim has been in my stash for a long time and I only had an inch left over after hand sewing it on.

The bottom of the skirt lining didn't want to miss out on the fun, so I sewed some Rick Rack to it too.

And last, but not least, I sewed some plain white bias binding to the edges of the bodice near the zipper.

So - onto the stash bustin' total for this dress:

3 yards for the outside
3 yards of lining
1.5 yards practice muslin
Total of 7.5 yards for this dress alone.

Yearly total to date of stashbustin is:  15.75 yards.  Not too shabby!

That's it for today!
Happy Sewing everyone!
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