A tale of many toiles

My magnolia dress by deer&doe patterns

I’d found a dress on Pinterest that was my inspiration and then was thrilled to find this pattern which was a great starting point to recreate it.

Based on my measurements Bust 35 and Waist 31 I started with size 40 at bust graded out to size 44 at waist – but it was far too big so I sized down to 38 at bust, graded to 42 at waist. Next I took in the shoulder by just under an inch, did a SBA by 5/8in, increased the height of the waist band by 1in, took in the princess seam at the armsyce by 1/2in on both sides, lowered the shoulders by 3/8in and took in the waist by 1/4in both sides. ?

Despite all that I still wasn’t thrilled with the final fit – princess seam isn’t lying flat on my high bust area, I took the shoulders in too much and there isn’t a nice straight line under the bust ?.

Overall fitting is very tough for me atm – I think on retrospect I still didn’t have the starting size correct – think I must be measuring myself too big. And I shouldn’t have messed with the height of the waist band as clearly the pattern designers know better than me ?.

I also hacked the original pattern by doing a gathered skirt and changing the sleeves to the frills. I love the frills and think I got those just right but wish I could have made the skirt fuller – unfortunately I ran out of fabric.

Having said all this – I made a wearable dress that I had a lot of fun wearing – and learnt a lot. I’d love to remake this with a drapey viscose and stick more to the original pattern as it’s a beautiful dress.