April MAGAM Challenge Completed!

Vogue 1382 - It's a split personality on this dress.

It's total Rockstar on the outside....

With an innocent cherry print on the inside....

If you remember in my layout picture, I had included some snap tape along the front lines just as a "maybe" feature.  Well, when I had completed the front panel, it definitely needed something so I started playing with the snap tape.

I pinned the female side of the snap tape to the long sections on the middle front and the male side of the tape across the front and across the same section on the back.  After standing back and starring at it for awhile, and asking the DH's opinion (as if that really mattered!), I decided to go for it.

And here it is sewn in place.  I was careful to make sure that a bump on the snap tape didn't hit at the highpoint of the bust - as that would have looked, well, just wrong if you get my drift!  Also - aligning the tape so one of the snaps didn't fall on a seam line took a bit of fidgeting.

I cut out pockets from each of my different fabrics because I wasn't sure exactly which one I wanted to use.  I finally settled on the black and white plaid ones.  

The armhole is quite low and it makes a sort of oval shape towards the front as you can see below while on the dress form.  

 The darts I added to the front and back helped out with the fit.

My invisible zipper is a little visible at the snap tape line, otherwise, it just wouldn't zip with the extra bulk.

The lining is comprised of a striped linen on top and a polyester cherry print on the bottom.  I used some green rick rack to separate the two.

Out of my starting 6 fabrics, I managed to use a piece from each of them to make up this dress.  I'm pretty impressed with myself!

This dress = 3.75 yards (for the the outside fabrics and the lining fabrics)
YTD yardage = 42 yards

Until next time - Happy sewing everyone!
Star

April MAGAM Progress

Progress has been made on my April MAGAM Challenge!

Starting with the muslin fitting...

I traced a size 12 at the bust and hips tapering to an 8 at the waist. 

The pic on the left is the dress with no changes.   It was close, but there was just too much room around the middle for my liking so I started adding darts on the dress form.  After adding 2 darts in the front and 2 in the back along with taking in the hips a little, I think the final fit is much more flattering. Still a little on the loose side since this is supposed to be a loose fitting sheath dress, but not so much that it will be puddling at my waist when I sit down.  

More pics.  Back before, during and after.  

And finally the hips before, during and after.

The theme for this month is to use the oldest piece of fabric from your stash and these are the lucky pieces - a selection of silks, linens and cotton.  I want to highlight the middle fabric - the one with the checks and squares somehow so I thought I'd do some pencil drawings again.

Below is the line drawing from the back of the pattern envelope - Vogue 1382 - an Anne Klein dress.

And here are my penciled drawings trying to determine the layout I prefer.  The highlight fabric placement is just too much in this location.

I like the placement at the top neckline and maybe the pockets.  The stripes on the sides will be the black linen with white stripes.  This is the placement I finally decided on - but I'll throw in the other designs as well so you can see the differences.  

Check on the bottom here was just way, way too much!

I was close on this one too.  It was my second choice.

Here's a trial-run of the fabric in the #2 placement shown above.  I've added some snap tape between the two middle front sections - not sure if I'll do this in the final product or not - I'm thinking it looks a little "Rockstarish" here.  

That's it for now.  Time to cut out the actual pieces and start sewing!

Happy sewing everyone!

Star