Tuesday, October 14, 2008

The Galaxy Dress: Revisited

I've been moving right along on the Galaxy dress - the bodice finished, the skirt has been attached, the invisible zipper is in - and hey, the plaids matched on either side of the zipper on the first shot. On Saturday night, after a day of shopping, I was too tired to risk messing something up by actually sewing in the workroom, so I decided to bring the sleeves out to the couch and finish the pleating and baste them into the dress. All seemed well, and I got them basted in and the ease gathers pretty well distributed.

On Sunday I tried the dress on with the sleeves. So glad I did that before I sewed them in, because those cute little sleeves made me look like a freaking linebacker. Huge, overpowering 1980s puffiness.

They don't look like that on the pattern envelope.

And my shoulders aren't that big - but apparently they are just big enough to really not work with this pattern. So off came the sleeves. Since I'd already put everything together I couldn't sew the armholes properly, so I ended up ironing a 5/8" allowance in on both sides and sewing it from the lining side. A little bias interfacing tape ironed along the seam made it sturdy enough and it doesn't look like the sleeveless option was an afterthought. And then, because the flanges just don't lay completely right once there's a body in the dress, I decided to topstitch the neckline, flanges and armholes anyway, so now nothing's going to go anywhere.

Thinking about it now, sleeveless is probably better for whatever capelet or jacket I make for overtop, because those uber-puffs would have definitely messed up the line of whatever I want to wear over the dress.

But damn those sleeves were cute until I saw them on me.

A few notes on this dress: Vogue seems to think it's a fairly easy pattern. I take issue with this. It's not a difficult pattern, but it's a challenging one. It's not a project to tackle when you're tired, or thinking about something else. And it's definitely not a project to tackle unless you've marked all your dots and notches and squares - accurately. Or you're in a bad place.

And then there are just the weird things. I don't know if I somehow mis-marked the skirt darts or the bodice darts (I'm assuming it wasn't Vogue's fault since none of the reviews mention it) but when I pinned the darts and held the skirt up to the bodice, the darts didn't line up. By a good inch they didn't line up.


They line up on the drawing, and I'm assuming in a perfect world they should line up on the dress. So I shifted the darts slightly, but that took my plaid slightly out of alignment. Still, I'd rather have that, especially since I'm going to wear the dress with a belt.

Up there at the top I did mention shopping, didn't I? There was a two-day fabric safari on Friday and Saturday, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I'm sorry to say that my camera died after one picture in Metro Textiles on Saturday. But here it is, Kashi and a small mob, happily lost among the fabrics:

7 comments:

Elaray said...

Good thing you learned about the Linebacker Sleeves before you sewed them in for good!

Looks like everyone was having fun at Metro! With God as my witness - I'll go shopping in New York again!!!

Carolyn (Diary of a Sewing Fanatic) said...

Karen - I'm liking the dress...sorry about the sleeves...but glad you were able to punt and go in another direction.

Is it me or does that shop look like he's managed to cram even more stuff into it! Must...stay...away...from...Kashi's! ROTFLOL!

Gretchen the Household Deity said...

I agree with Carolyn--Kashi's is looking a little flush. I hope you got a good haul! I think sleeveless is a cute option for the galaxy dress.

Meg said...

Love the galaxy dress. What did you buy in NYC?

Adrienne said...

It's really looking great! I have had this pattern for a while and really want to make it!

Lori said...

I like the dress without the sleeves, just for the reason of the jacket. It was a very good thing you found this out before you sewed them! Wow, that looks fun at Metro, I am with Elaray, I am going to NYC shopping sometime

Cennetta said...

Love your dress and you know I plan to make it too. Thanks for the heads up on the sleeves.

One day I'll make it to New York to shop fabric. I can't wait until am able to do so!