New Project: Vogue 1239

I am so excited about this dress!  I think it is elegant and modern, and I can't wait to see what it looks like in person.

Chado Ralph Rucci, Vogue American Designer Pattern 1239

This is a fully lined dress with 15 pattern pieces, and I think it has about 45 pieces of fabric in the final dress, all told.  I might underline it, which if I do will put it into competition with the number of pieces of fabric in my wedding gown, which was 64.  I am doing a muslin because it is not at all clear how to do a full bust adjustment if I decide I want to do it.  All the seams are sewn, edgestitched, and then topstitched, so this will be one sturdy dress!  :-)  I will be practicing that on my muslin, as well, because I want it to look good.  I had 0 yards of 60" muslin and 25 yards of 45" muslin, so I ripped off 2.5 yards, ripped it into 15" strips, sewed them together into one 7.5 yard by 15" strip and then sewed that to a long edge of muslin.  Voila, 7.5 yards of 60" muslin.  I prepared the pattern tissue and started pinning and cutting the muslin on July 4th.  Today I started tracing and trimming the pieces. 

One of my post-wedding gown goals is to start learning how to sew more quickly.  So instead of tracing seamlines on the patterns and then cutting with an imprecise 1-inch plus seam allowance, I'm actually using the seam allowances included on the pattern pieces.  This is saving me time!  First, I don't have to measure out the stitching lines on the pattern tissue.  Second, I don't need to thread trace all the seam lines (and all the other markings...using a Sharpie this time and snipping notches) because the fabric edge is already a guide to the seam lines (this is fine as long as I am willing to add fabric if I need more...I think I probably cut a size too large, though, so it shouldn't be a problem...famous last words??).  I think I will still hand baste any tricky bits, though, because it makes tricky bits a million times easier to sew accurately. 

Pictures soon!