MrsBrown's philosophy of life and stuff

I've been making a dress and I'm quite concerned that it won't suit me. You don't get to try on dresses before you make them.

Last week I thought I had the skirt for the dress sorted out. I'd carefully measured my fabric and worked out how much skirt I could fit into it. Then I made a prototype and finished it (except for the hem which doesn't count) yesterday. It's a 2 circle circular skirt, and it looks fine. If I squint and get rid of my belly, it even looks awesome.

So last night I finished off the patterning of the dress bodice and cut out the lining for the last test fit. Yay, that all worked and then I measured how much fabric I have left after cutting out the bodice in the dress fabric. Damn! I have less fabric than I thought so I need to rethink the skirt and I don't have time to make a prototype again. I just need to make a decision and go for it.

This site talks about body shape and the best skirts for what body shape. According to it, "the full circle skirt is almost one-shape-suits-all" and I do have enough fabric for a single circle.

Then I had another look at the dresses I liked from the Vintage Pattern wiki.  In particular, this one.  It looks like a circular skirt with pleats and the description in the entry calls it a "full, four-gore skirt with unpressed pleats".  So I went looking for the back of the pattern. to try to understand what a four gore skirt is.  The back of the pattern packet includes a picture of the pattern pieces.  The skirt is actually a rectangular skirt with a hem to waist ratio of 4-5:1.  Wow, that would be so easy to make!

This morning I was struck with indecision.  The full circle skirt has more potential for problems, but is possibly more flattering.  The full gathered skirt will be easier but might just result in over-emphasising the shelf of my hips.  Thanks to this blogging, and re-finding Gertie's version of the full gathered skirt  - Gertie is not too far from my shape and I like the look of the skirt she made, I've decided to go with the easy option.  I may need to make a petticoat too, but I'll see how stiff my cotton sateen will be, especially with a deep hem.

I had great plans to actually _do_ stuff tonight, as distinct from sitting at my computer.  But my body intervened.  It's cold so I've been reluctant to move since sitting on the couch with a blanket on my lap.  When my computer battery beeped and my power supply was next to the bed, I took it as a sign and that's where I am now, with my eyes furiously blinking and conspiring to get in the way of my plan to watch Pride and Prejudice.

Actually, Rose helped too.  She sat and annoyed me for a little while and then clunked it with her head on my arm.  I just had to put her to bed and my evening was my own.

Anyway, instead of _doing_ stuff, I electronically drafted the pattern for my smock which I've measured off the real thing several times now and then lost the piece of paper.

I'm not going to lose the piece of paper now that I've written it up in my pattern blog.

rain_and_snow if you haven't already made it them, you might find it useful.