Adjusting the Princess Slip for Me, Myself & I

I was very excited to receive the Princess Slip pattern # 0336 from VPLL for the 1912 Sewing Project.  When it comes to me and patterns it is always standard practice to make adjustments and this pattern was no exception.  I do have some body issues that complicate matters but have learned to live with them and the necessary adjustments that have to be made.  Those issues being my height, I always have to lengthen patterns, my short waist issue (I have no body – I am all legs) and the pattern adjustments that accompany my scoliosis.  I don’t have a bad curve but it does present problems that require all patterns to be tweaked in order to fit me.

In creating my pattern I traced only the top half of the pattern to make those necessary adjustments marking off a horizontal line for my high-hip and hip locations based upon the natural waistline of the pattern.  I am of the school of thought….I never cut my original pattern!!!  God forbid….I prefer to trace and mess with the tracing.  It may take longer but I am always left with a pristine pattern that can be utilized again for myself or someone else in the future.

The major adjustments I made to this pattern were as follows':

• Waist – made larger
• Adjusted the side front and side back per previous posters suggestion.  I too found that it fell too far back and cut and pasted the side front/back pieces to realign the side seam up correctly.  This in turn required a slight adjustment on the front armcye.
• Additionally the princess seam was approximately 1” too far over towards the side seam.  I realigned that so that it fell over my bust point.
• I lowered the bust 3/4” to match up to my bust point.
• I lengthened/shortened the shoulder as well on both the front and back pieces due to finding the seam falling too far towards the back.  I aligned it to center correctly at the shoulder.
• Shortened the waist 1 1/2” to match my upper body length and re-lengthened the pattern at the hip area to match the original overall length of the slip.  I did not lengthen the slip being as you have 17” of flounce to deal with and can make the length adjustments with that.
• I truly did NOT like the directions for the back placket and created a facing for both center back pieces.  I made a slight adjustment to the pattern at the base of the placket (had a placket nightmare moment which will be discussed in a later post).
• Some minor tweaks included some back darts on the center back pieces due my scoliosis and not liking the excess fabric gapping there as well as taking it in at the shoulder seam starting at the neck edge and decreasing it to match the seam allowance at the armhole.  There just was way too much fabric for my liking.  I left the front alone but if I make this again I would further adjust the pattern to take out the fullness at the center front as well.  For now that fullness can be drawn up with the eyelet trim and ribbon.

It took me two muslins to get this pattern worked out to fit my body proportions.  I am satisfied with the results but being as this project has taken me two months to complete from start to finish my final product is slightly large on me being as I have lost some weight due to a lifestyle change that my husband and myself have made for his health that was started back in January.  Not a bad thing…I am happy to have the weight gone but must now save for a new Myrna being as the present one is slightly too big.

Muslin # 1

 

Muslin# 2

   

Up next commencement of the slip itself!  Happy Sewing….

Ma Ma Ma…Marvelous Myrna

Pray tell…who is Myrna you ask???

Myrna just arrived today after a quick trip up 87 from the borough of Queens in NYC. Even though her trip here was rather short it is anticipated that she will be with us for an extended stay. I have waited almost a lifetime for her to get here and can’t wait to start working with her on the various projects we have planned together, first up being a jacket by Simplicity Patterns that I just fell in love with.

If you haven’t quite figured this one out yet, Myrna is the name I have given my dress form that I have recently purchased. She is stunning from the tip of her neck post, to the padded linen body, right on down to the cast iron of her feet.

The search for Myrna has been an elusive one. After having taken a brief hiatus from sewing I have been recently inspired by the Lifetime series Project Runway. As happen stance would have it, a fellow e-blogger has been a source of inspiration as well with her web presence and online tutorials on You Tube.

With the fire of my inner-seamstress being relit the quest to find a reasonably priced dress form commenced. My search began online with checking out reviews on the more easily accessible dress forms offered by Dritz and Singer. The search engines took me to numerous websites that offered these forms for sale. In reading these reviews I wasn’t too sure I wanted to invest the $$ they were charging for this type of dress form. I am more of a hands-on type person and like to see and touch what I am purchasing.

Recently, during one of Joann's (Joann.com) $ 0.99 pattern sales I got the opportunity to observe the Dritz forms up close. For me, I was not impressed. They do offer the wonderful feature of being able to adjust the form to your measurements but I did not like the space that is left open when you make those adjustments. Yes, you could cover your form in a sheath to compensate for this but then you still are compromising the fit and hang of your garment due to the gaps especially if you are on the large end of your forms dress size. I wasn’t too enthused about the product quality either, they seemed kind of flimsy. If I was going to invest that kind of money on something like this I really wanted to get the quality for the dollars spent.

My search continues…

I stumbled upon several very nice websites for dress forms that are used by designers and fashion school students. One of these sites Fabulous Fit offers a wide variety of forms and the quality of the product offered is definitely worth the money spent. Another site to consider as well would be PGM.  Having said this I still continued on with my search because these forms were a little more than my budget would allow for.

Up next….E-bay

I then proceeded to check E-bay for any offerings and low and behold a hit came back from my search. A company (LaModel), located in Queens, NY was offering a sale on their professional dress forms. They were also offering the product as a “buy-it-now” auction/sale. I was definitely impressed with the price being as the form was on sale and was more than half the cost of the Fabulous Fit form. It was also comparable in price to the flimsy, My Double Deluxe Dritz form and the quality was so much better. The only down side of these forms is that they do not match your measurements exactly but you can compensate for that by purchasing a form that closely matches your measurements and padding your form where necessary.

This company’s form fit into my budget and I placed an order for my size dress form. I was definitely impressed with the company’s response time. I ordered my form on E-bay October 18th and it was sitting on my front porch when I got home from work on October 20th. Wow….

I was so excited to see it sitting there that everything came to a stand still upon entering the house. I immediately opened the shipping carton and was impressed with the packing of the product. They do ship it unassembled and being my husband was out of town some ingenuity in putting it together by me was in order. It didn’t take long, overall maybe 20 minutes and Myrna was standing there before me in all her linen glory.

I am so pleased that Myrna has decided to come and stay with me; she is now a key source of my inspiration and I can not wait to start utilizing her.

As I mentioned earlier a fellow e-blogger (Mimi Goodwin) offers several tutorials online. Up first for me…draping…looking forward to it!!!

P.S. Please Note: Myrna’s size identity has been concealed in order to protect the body measurements of the innocent…or as the case may be, her sewing partner...me. ;-)

Happy sewing…