After finishing the baste stitching on the final pattern and trying the dress on, I discovered that the flare at the bottom of the dress is more prominent on one side. This means that there is more fabric on one side of the dress and the seams are not quite right. So, I decided to pull out all of the baste stitching and start again from scratch.

Since both pattern pieces match up evenly and the mistake was made in the pinning process, I did not need to rework the final pattern. To make pinning the dress around the form a bit easier this time, I started out by pinning the front and back panels to each other on all seams. After balancing the material out, draping the sides and finishing pinning, I baste stitched the seams again. I tried the dress on and it appears that the seams are matched up evenly this time. The fit is good and the bottom of the dress flows beautifully when I walk.

Once I was happy with the fit, I put the pattern back on the dress form and stylized the armhole. The armhole turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the dress and it wasn’t even in the original sketch! It dips down underneath the armpit and shows enough skin to look sexy chic and not too over the top. I also started on the pattern for the shell shape that will cover the right breast by cutting a large enough piece of muslin and attaching interfacing in the middle for stiffness. Unfortunately, the stiffness is not enough to hold the material up (the material is pinned to the form in the photo) so I am looking into other options. I read about using pellon interfacing for extreme stiffness and decided to explore that as an option…

After removing the draped top pattern from the dress form, I ironed the material and cut around the edges to smooth out the lines. I then cut the pattern from another piece of muslin to create the top back panel.

Now that I have my two top pieces, I strategically draped them on the dress form. They both require bunching on the side and I wanted to make sure that the lines matched up from front to back. After I was happy with the way the bunching looked, I baste stitched the top panels together at the side, top and shoulder seams.

I placed the skirt panels back on the form and baste stitched them to the top panels with all seams matching up. I left open the seam that will hold the zipper so I could easily slide it off and on for fittings. After trying the dress on, I feel that it is ready for the final pattern. The only changes that will be made to the pattern are fusing the top and bottom panels into one. I also decided that I love the way the armpit hole on the left side is open which steps away from the original design. It adds just a touch of sexy to an overall classic gown.

I finished attaching the waistbands and am pleased with the overall look. There are a few adjustments needed so I decided to make the following changes for the original pattern draft:

- add 1” length to the hem

- fix the seam allowance for the lower back panels

- add a 5/8 seam allowance on the edges that connect the front decorative waistband to the back decorative waistband

- add a little width to decorative waistband (to create a higher waistband)

After making all of these changes, the pattern is finished and ready for the final fabric. I tried the skirt on and it fits like a glove. Very excited to wear it! My next stop will be the fabric store which is one of my favorite parts of the design process. I’m looking for an ivory-colored fabric with a little bit of stretch and a medium thickness (in between tweed and a stretchy cotton). Most likely I will change my mind about the fabric color or texture once I am at the store. We shall see!