Garments, Uncategorized

Assignment: Marianne Dress

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Moving right along with my assignment to learn more about garment sewing and proper fit as part of my Assignment: Project Garment goal (check that link to see past projects), I decided to switch it up and try a knit this time. Although knits are easier to fit than woven garments in general, it’s still important to make a muslin before you cut into the actual fabric, as I found out.

This dress was made using the brand new pattern by Christine Haynes called the Marianne Dress. This is a casual knit dress that hits above the knee. You can make it either with the short sleeve kimono-length and collar, or there is a long sleeve version with cuffs and button. The long sleeve version also has the option to use two different fabrics.

marianne1

I decided to go with the two-tone option, although I wanted to use the short sleeves. I do adore the sleeve cuff and buttons, but I thought the short sleeve look would be edgier (or maybe it’s only in my mind).

Let’s review again that these are my measurements so we can see how I chose the size to use in my muslins:

  • High Bust (at underarm): 31″
  • Full bust (across fullest area of bust): 31-1/4″
  • Waist: 25-1/2″
  • Hip: 34-1/4″

According to the back of the pattern, I should cut a size 0 in the upper yoke (since I’m doing the two-tone) and a size 4 for the skirt front and back. Also remember that this pattern is drafting for a B-cup, and the difference between my high bust and full bust (31″ minus 31-1/4″, which is a difference of less than 1″) puts me at an A-cup (A cup is less than 1″ difference, B-cup is 2″ difference, C-cup is 3″ difference, and so on), so I will assume I will possibly need to make an adjustment to the top of the dress. Since this is using a knit and based on photographs I’ve been on the designer’s website, I assumed that there would be ease in the skirt and so I opted to cut my muslin in size 0 across the board.

 

marianne-back-cover

Upon advice from some friends, I tried to find a muslin fabric that was close to the fabric that I would be using for the actual dress. I went to Joann’s looking for some cheap knit fabric. They don’t have a huge amount of knits, but I got lucky and found some in the clearance section (which happened to be an additional 50% off that week) that were what looked like knits for little girls, so I got about 7 yards to keep on hand for muslins. One of my friends, Amanda from Kitschy Coo (who has a lot of brilliant knit patterns), suggested that I didn’t necessarily need to make a muslin for the entire thing, maybe cut it off at bum-length, but I did make a muslin for the whole thing because I wanted to see where the length hit me, in case I wanted to lengthen or shorten it. It ended up being the perfect length.

So for my first muslin, upon first putting it on, it felt great and amazingly comfortable. I looked in the mirror and all appeared fine. But then, since I am testing myself to learn, I gave it a second glance and this is what I saw:

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This was the front and back of the dress on the first muslin. Notice the bunchy fabric near my underarm, which I’ve circled in both photos. Now assuming my size and assuming that there will need to be some sort of small bust adjustment made to the pattern pieces, I believe that this is what is accounting for the bunched-up fabric.

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I used my fingers to pinch the area with the extra fabric only, and marked the fabric that I pinched in with some Wonder Clips (it’s always handy to get help with the back, since it’s hard to reach while at the same time standing normally). With that extra fabric, I drew a dart on the front and back yoke, making sure that the bottom legs of the dart were against the area that would be attached to the skirt portion later on.

Here’s the dart I drew on the front of the yoke:

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And here’s the dart I drew on the back of the yoke:

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I learned how to put darts in a bodice that *has no darts* from the Craftsy class I watched, Adjust the Bust. Since this dress is supposed to be seamless, you don’t want to be sewing darts in your actual fabric. So adding darts to the pattern piece and manipulating that piece to close the dart up accomplishes that, and you do that before you cut your fabric. Again, I used Pellon #830 Easy Pattern to trace off my pattern pieces because it is lightweight and easy to manipulate. After I made the final changes to the pieces, I traced them off again (as my manipulated pieces had tape all over them) so they are nice and neat for storage. Next time I make this dress, I’ll just use my finalized pattern pieces.

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The only other change to the pattern pieces that I made was that I tapered the skirt piece into an elongated ‘U’ shape in the bust area, as I wanted that area to huge me a little instead of being lose in the bust area (here’s the little sliver that I cut from the skirt fabric, so that you can see what I mean):

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I’m certainly no expert, but I think that these changes helped. Could I have just sewn the dress straight off the pattern pieces without making the dart adjustment? Sure I could. I don’t think that the bunchiness near the arms bothered me overly, but as I said when I started making these garments, the goal is to learn. I saw a little bit of excess fabric and I eliminated it.

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The Marianne Dress pattern is brilliant. I used Art Gallery Fabrics knit by Katarina Roccella from the ‘Recollection’ line with 40wt. Aurifil thread. I like large-scale prints, so I will be on the look-out for more large knits like this one! Such a versatile piece, and went together very quickly (I think the actual dress sewed up in a couple of hours). The pattern is written very well, with large illustrations for each step. I still feel a bit ungainly sewing with knits (I don’t feel like my finished seams look very nice in general), but I hope that will improve over time. For what I actually sewed, there were only 4 pattern pieces: skirt, yoke front, yoke back, and neck binding. That makes things really simple.

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Hopefully you liked this view behind my work on sewing up this pattern! For my next project, I’ll be making something for a different body type. It’s my grandmother’s birthday this week, so I’m making her the Cindy Taylor Oats Camp Shirt! Stay tuned!

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9 thoughts on “Assignment: Marianne Dress

  1. pennydog says:

    Really interesting, I always struggle with clothing adjustments so I love knits for this very reason!

  2. green231 says:

    Lovely dress. Thanks for sharing.

  3. Awesome! I love hearing about how you manipulated it all. What fun to be learning new things.

  4. Carrie says:

    Enjoyed following your process on this one. I’ve yet to work with knits at all, so I’m taking it all in. [I’m assuming that you are using “muslin” here to mean the fabric that you use to mock up the test run? Not actual muslin, right?]]

  5. Ali M says:

    I might want to take that class, thanks for showing how to take excess fabric out in that area!

  6. Beth says:

    Adorable dress. Great information on making adjustments for a better fit.

  7. thelittlestthistle says:

    The end result looks great, all those adjustments on the pattern were the sorts of things I learned in the class, although I tended to be adding more than I was subtracting, but since you’re not trying to fit a small elephant, you’ll be fine 😉

    More on the lighting, can you stand further away from the backdrop? That would help more in the lighting distinction between you and it.

  8. Cherie says:

    I am enjoying your series on making clothes. It is teaching me a lot. Thank you so much for sharing. And this dress and your other dress that you you made from Christine Haynes are super cute!

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