Simplicity 3701 progress

Hello lovely people.

Things have been all over the place for me this past month. I've been hanging out with a new friend and getting to know her and drinking lots of mimosas (long story), I've been doing a lot more drawing and finishing up Vintageville stuff (I added a new completed drawing to my FB page), I've been writing a lot, doing some freelance, and generally detaching.

I did go to the Santa Monica Vintage Expo this past weekend and had a great time window shopping. I found this bag from a lovely gal friend I know who owns Heavenly Handbags. She specializes in these types of bags. This one I hope to make mine this month!

Mostly, I've been lazy on purpose, just thinking and refocusing. It's been what it's been, so with May coming tomorrow, I'm working on getting myself together and taking on more projects.

I also decided to re-visit that dress mockup I had been working on. I really was not too into it, mainly because I just didn't want to go through the trouble of resizing the pattern.

The first mock up was not bad, but again, lazy. So I let the dress collect dust for no reason. I hate that. I hate unfinished projects. I ambivalently got the project back out and ended up working on it for two hours, completing the mock up! Yay me!

What I realized with this dress is the curve of the bodice design needed to be larger and wider in shape. In my original mock up, I used the original curve and it was too narrow at the bottom making the whole drape look silly. I hate to look silly...sometimes :)

As you can see above, curving the bodice wider ends up matching the yoke which I didn't have to alter. Go figure.

I used the original lines from the pattern and sandwiched the yoke. Now to put the whole thing together.

Presto. I can't decide if I like the gather at the bodice or a dart. I'm leaning towards the dart. What do you all think?

See? Widening the curve (and lowering it, too) made all the difference. The skirt was just a mess, and I ended up taking it in 4 inches. I'm holding the dress closed in the picture. There are a few minor alterations to do: Lower the side bust dart, bring the shoulder up a bit so the darted sleeves rest a bit higher on my arm (giving me more mobility) and I might put some kick ass flair in the skirt. I'll have to see how much fabric I have.

I'm really feeling like adding a lot of detail to this series of dresses. Rick rack, perhaps some pin tucking and piping. Once it's sized, I can knock these out with a quickness, and I kind of want to just make some real nice detailed dresses, especially for summer.

Okay lovely people. That's about it for me today. I'm planning on actually cutting out the dress tomorrow, if I can choose a fabric. I leave you with my cat, Brasco, drinking the leftover water out of my fabric steamer.