Apparently the repair was faster than expected, the repair shop sent my sewing machine back yesterday! The big box arrived in the morning and I danced happily all day. No more machineless week! I used it right away to finish my husband’s jeans. They only need to be hemmed now and I’m waiting for my husband to come home so I can measure the length of the legs.
Meanwhile, I started to work on my bombshell dress. The smallest size of the pattern is 36, which is still too big for me. So I resized it to 96% of the original size and cut size 36. This is one of the advantages of using PDF pattern! The fabric is some purple linen with white floral pattern as I didn’t have any plain fabric.
I think the muslin fits quite well except for the top of the bustline. You can see that I have pinned them with red pins on each side.
Working in my computer, I slash open the upper cup pattern and overlap the top. Naturally this will add more curve to the bottom line of this piece so I should check again if it will affect the overall cup shape.
- Pattern piece.
- Slashing the pattern.
- Overlapping both sides about 1.4 cm and draw the new bustline.
- Altered pattern.
Hi Novita. This fabric looks far too good to be used for a toile! Thank you for your inspiration on pattern alterations. I know I can’t avoid this process for much longer. I have to get brave! Can I just ask, When you say you use Corel Draw to alter the pattern shapes, do you open the pdf in corel draw to edit or do you trace the elements first. I use Adobe Illustrator for my line of work but never thought to use it for pattern alterations. Im quite excited… but still scared!
CorelDraw can’t open PDF file, so I imported the PDF file. When imported, the PDF file turns into vector that sometimes can be used right away. But in this case, I have to trace it because the lines for my size has dots on them. I love using the program for pattern alteration, the lines are clear and the measurements can be more exact.
But don’t worry too much about the pattern alteration, when you try on your muslin, your body will tell you what needs to be adjusted
If you resize the pattern pdf, will that also make it shorter?
Yes it will make it shorter too. I’m a petite size, European/American bodice pattern usually is a bit too long for me, that is why this kind of resizing works very well for me. In fact, if the pattern also came in size 32, the resized 36 will be better on my body
Congratulation about the machine Novita!
I am thinking about the course. Although I am still a novice really, but I think you and Gertie have convinced me. I am going to give it a go! The muslin look great!
This dress is going to be amazing, koodos to you for making sure it will fit perfectly!
Heya Novita!
I’m so happy you got your machine back so quickly…looks like you wasted no time in putting it to use- I totally dig that dress your making. Schools coming up soon for the boys so I’m being adventurous and making them a few pairs of jeans (courtesy of the inspiration you gave me from that last pair you made for Sidra) you look great in that color of purple by the way, you should soooo consider the final dress in a similar shade. Happy sewing ^_~
WOW you are so advanced working with your computer! You must be happy to have your machine back… must have been a long lonely few days without him. The muslin is looking good, I am in the process of making a burdastyle bustier top…hopefully it works out. Yours is looking good so far!
That fabric is fantastic! I say you should just make the plain bustier top w/ it anyway
I’m taking the class as well, and it’s a lot of fun! With your fitting issue, you might want to consider pinching out a vertical line where piece 2 and 3 meet and slash and overlap piece 1 to avoid messing with the curve of the pattern piece. I think that the horizontal seam through the cup needs to be as straight across as possible in order for the proportions to look nice. I hope this helps, and I’m just judging on how I see the picture. Good luck with the rest of the dress 
It looks so great! I’m taking the course too but haven’t started my muslin yet as I’m having some difficulty assembling the pattern
Printer woes! I’m sure I’ll catch up soon enough, though!
I recently found your blog and am so intrigued. I love that you make clothes for your whole family and even lingerie for yourself! I’ve never taken an online sewing course but maybe I will one day. I quilt, knit, crochet, scrapbook, and sew garments but I’m not very good at garment making. I could definitely benefit from a class or two!
The fabric is very pretty, even for a muslin! I would love to take the course but am short on funds, thank goodness I can always take it later since it will be available for a long time. Got to love the internet! I think it is so cool how you are altering the pattern on the computer, what program did you use?
Hi Lucha, you won’t regret taking the course later, it is so much fun! I wish there will be more intermediate level online courses in the future.
I use CorelDraw, it is a vector-based drawing program very similar to Adobe Illustrator
Thanks! I really need to get more comfortable with these types of tools to do more pattern work on my computer, I wish they would do a class on that on craftsy! and I agree about more intermediate sewing classes, it is so nice to learn new techniques! Can’t wait until I can take this one!
The fabric you’re using for the dress is gorgeous!!! I can’t wait to see the finished dress! Have a nice day!
Thank you! Unfortunately it’s just the muslin fabric, I still haven’t decided what kind of fabric that I would use for the final dress