After tweaking the darts a bit, I finally got them into place. Continuing on from yesterday, I stay-stitched the skirt panels and darts into place and removed the pins so I could try it on (pins = OUCH). LOVE the fit. Working with an adjustable dress form definitely helps when tailoring a garment to your own measurements.

Next task – drafting the waistband. After some consideration, I decided on a thin standard-looking waistband below the decorative ruffle waistband, which steps away from the original design a little but helps to streamline the look and add functionality.

Drafting the waistbands was fairly easy since both required a rectangular shape. I took the waist measurement and added a 5/8 seam allowance with enough width to fold for the standard waistband. The decorative waistband required more length in order to create the “ruffle”. It also needed a greater width for a more dramatic effect.

After cutting the patterns from Muslin, I started to stay-stitch the bands into place. Small folds were added to the fabric at certain points on the decorative band to create the ruffles. Once the bands are attached, I will be able to determine if any alterations needed to be made to the patterns.