30s Dress ~ Chapter Two

The Writing

This 30s flutter-sleeve dress is going together easier than I thought it would. Good thing, too, because I’ve been stalled out in my story, writing the same chapter over and over again. I know I should move on, but my gut is telling me that if I don’t set the relationship/conflict between the hero and heroine now—as opposed to going back and doctoring it—that it’ll cause me trouble later.

Every book is different and sometimes I’ve happily skipped huge chunks of the story to write a scene that defined the story. Not this story—probably because that scene has not yet fought its way into my brain. So I keep tapping away, hoping to key in on that magic bit of whatever that unlocks everything. I think I’m close.  The heroine, who is uber professional, just made a snarky comment to the hero, which has given both the hero and me something to think about.  Sometimes it just takes something like that to flesh a character out and make writing that character more intuitive. Hopefully when I wake up tomorrow and put fingers to keyboard, good things will happen.

The Sewing

Back to the dress.  The muslin went together well and it fits. Well, most of it fits. All right, the top fits. The skirt needs a bit of adjustment. 

(The top will be gathered before its attached to the skirt.)

You know...I remember when fitting a skirt wasn't quite so challenging.

I ripped out the side seams and gave myself ¼ inch on each side and now it fits. I have to remember to increase the center seam allowance of the inserts by an equal amount when I cut out the fashion fabric.

Several components of this dress are supposed to be top-stitched onto the underlying pieces. The skirt openings are top-stitched onto the inserts. Makes sense. 

The yoke is top-stitched onto the lower bodice.  Again, a logical approach. 

The bodice is gathered and then top-stitched to the skirt. I’m not doing that, because it sounds like a disaster in the making. I’m gathering the bodice and attaching it the way I always do—by putting right sides together and stitching.

So now that I know everything fits, I’m going to tackle cutting out the fashion fabric, which should prove interesting, because it’s a black and white geometric challis (stretchy bias, anyone?) and I’ll have to match the print. I can feel my OCD starting to kick into gear just thinking about it.

Stay tuned for the next chapter.