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Thanks for all the tips and info in the book. It took forever with the cutting the pieces (probably not best idea to make my first fully lined invisible zip dress with rayon challis (both layers))

But looks great. I think a woven with more body for the next version will go incredibly fast.

Ava

Oh, okay. The way I understood it was that the piece that is to be cut away from the right shirt front in step 1 will be used as the placket in step 2. My bad. Thank you for clarifying!

Julia, piece 16 is the front placket, which is one of the first things you sew at the very beginning of the instructions on page 1. There is a pattern piece identification chart at the very beginning of the instructions to help you.

Thank you Todd!

You might be interested in reading this blog post from a while back:

ask me: how to buy a sewing machine

If you’re planning to use it for labels then you could look at Etsy stores who will print onto cotton twill tape. Then you could have your own custom labels.
I find eBay, Etsy and Amazon to all be good online sources for notions like this.
Sewing shops will often stock it but may not bother putting it in their online catalogue, so you never know…[Read more]

I vote for serge, personally. If you have a serger all those little clips just sort of disappear in the stitching. Cheers!

I agree with @mlinton. It’s a little difficult to tell from just one photo, but it looks to me like you have a very square shoulder. The Fit for Real People book explains how to make the adjustment very clearly. You’ll need to account for the yoke, but even then I think it’s an easy fix and should help to get you a great-fitting shirt!

If you have a copy of the Building Block Dress book I explain how to draft an A-line from the bodice. You could certainly do something like that for this style if you’re certain you need extra room through the hips. Otherwise I’d suggest gently blending between sizes starting someplace between the bust and waist so you can get an easy curve. I…[Read more]

Thanks very much @lightningmcstitch 😊

The bust fits. However I have *very* wide lower hips, this makes fitting an absolute nightmare as patterns are generally not designed for bodies like mine😁 Extra width is mandatory for me.

I didn’t think about making the pleat deeper. I’ll give it a try. Thank you x

Louise I’d be very surprised if you needed to. Assuming your upper body (bust, shoulders) fit in a size then the garment is so drapey and loose you probably wouldn’t need any more down below.
One other way you could add some extra swinging width would be to cut the centre back a little in from the fold and make the pleat deeper. The stitched,…[Read more]

I can’t tell from the picture, but the shoulder width doesn’t seem too narrow to me, so I wouldn’t necessarily change the size. Does the shoulder seam sit where you want (not pulling backward or forward)? This looks like a square shoulder to me. I would try adjusting by raising the shoulder seam slope in the front and back and then raising the…[Read more]

I can’t tell from the picture, but the shoulder width doesn’t seem too narrow for me. Does the shoulder seam sit where you want (not pulling backward or forward)? This looks like a square shoulder to me. I would try adjusting by raising the shoulder seam slope in the front and back and then raising the underarm the same amount so that you aren’t…[Read more]