hi everyone! How’s your week going? Well I hope! Well in my corner of the world I’m sewing a Georgia Dress for the Monthly Stitch’s March theme – Miss Bossy Pants. And you may have noticed that I posted the photo above on my Instagram earlier this week. I had a lot of compliments on my fabric choice and a lot of people who couldn’t believe I’d make a muslin out of such great fabric. The truth is that I bought it for $1.50 at The Vintage Store in Papatoetoe. So this was my practice and if you look closely you can see its not quite right. The cups finish a bit too high (see the arrows?) I need them to sit about 3cm lower but I don’t want to go up a size as I like the way the rest of the dress looks as well as the fit.
Solution? Some pattern editing. By Hand London HQ has some great posts on how to adjust the Georgia Dress for a full bust adjustment and a small bust adjustment. Because there are several pieces in the bodice of this dress the adjustments are a bit different to your normal FBA/ SBA. But I just want to add 3cm to the middle of my pattern pieces and move the whole thing down.
So how do I adjust my patterns? I go straight to the kitchen … For some lunch paper. I traced the three main bodice pieces, drew a line 1.5cm from the bottom (this is the seam allowance) and cut. I then taped the top half of the pattern to more lunch paper, measured a 3cm gap and taped the bottom section to the lunch paper. Et voila! New bodice pieces. But now this is the real question – Will this even work? This is not the suggested way to adjust the bodice. So tell me – is this a good strategy for making a bodice that will fit?
Dresses & Me 
Sounds good to me! But then, I’m not the right one to ask – I invent random alterations on the fly and pay little-no attention to how you’re ‘meant’ to do them. 😉
LikeLike
do you really? That’s good to know! I feel quite rebellious not following any rules or tutorials lol
LikeLike
Yep, I tend not to talk about them because I’m worried someone else will copy what I do and it won’t work for them because I don’t really know what they heck I’m doing but just hack away happily!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hahahahahahahha that’s hilarious! I love your approach!!
LikeLike
I’m no expert but I’ll bet this would work! The only additional check I would make is whether or not you like how the bottom of the cup seam fits when it’s lowered – easy to test by trying the dress on without straps and moving it down to where you want the seam.
LikeLike
ok that’s good advice! I will do 🙂
LikeLike
Sounds good to me, too, and love that fabric!
del
LikeLike
thanks Del, me too!
LikeLike
You need more length to get around the girlies, so this will work, in my head anyway 😉
LikeLike
Mine too! Will let you know how it turns out 🙂
LikeLike
It’s certainly worth a try! I have a long torso/low bust so I run into this problem as well, if there is a seam supposed to sit under the bust. I’m interested to see how it’ll turn out. Oh, and I’m sure you’ll remember but just in case – don’t forget to lengthen the back pieces accordingly as well!
LikeLike
OH! That is very good advice! I will adjust the back piece too 🙂 I’ll post about how it turns out and let everyone know 🙂
LikeLike
I have no idea but seriously love that fabric!
LikeLike
heheheh thanks!
LikeLike
I’m sure this would work. You’re just going for extra length over the bustling, not so much width. The width looks fine for you. This is the way I’d do it (provided I was ever thin enough to wear a dress like this)!
LikeLike
Hehe thanks Jennifer! I’m hoping it works out and it’s good to know that so far everyone thinks it will 🙂
LikeLike