Fitting and changing styles of Patterns

I don't like kimono sleeves.. so originally I overlaid the lace to look like set in sleeves.  But this did not help the cut.  I have rounded shoulders...really rounded.. so I like set in sleeves... I just tried this style because I liked the idea of piecing different textures.  Now... after improvising I once again am changing the style cut.

So after the darts from the set in sleeves and the darts to make the waist fitted at the peplum, I found I needed to do a full body dart up to the edge of the trim to take out the extra gapage...(word?) and in the back I did the same thing.  I am big accross the back and still with the change from the kimono sleeves to the set in sleeves I needed to take more in... so I did the same thing in the back doing a full length body dart in the back too.

Now, the 25 lbs I lost not only is obvious.. it is obviously not enough... so back to the powdered drinks for the next four days and heavy exercising.

Gotta get those old musics with the beats going...LOL

The next group of pics will be the forest green under dresses... and then the crazy shoes...

The pattern that has some set in sleeves is this one:

I took the sleeve pattern piece and overlaid the sleeve cap on the top of the coat dress already made... and cut the sleeve off close to the lace over lay.   This way I knew I could alter the sleeve that was already made and match the shoulder seam and the sleeve seam a the top.... I took in the bottom of the sleeve to match the pattern piece under seam... now to match it back up to the bodice..

Pattern piece I overlaid over the original kimono sleeves to get a set in sleeve..

Here is one sleeve altered and set back into the bodice.... but side darts to the bodice had to be added first to make the bodice work with set-in sleeves otherwise there was a bulk gap in the fitting.

Lace kind of hid this, but it only takes a pinch and stitch to make the bodice have two darts one up and one side and then the sleeves fit back in perfectly.... Whether my  big body will fit? I am very very shapely.... so I prefer baggy flowy things.... It is not that I am shy, but I find it unnecessary to show all my curves to feel pretty and feminine... I prefer the freeflowing fashion look.  But this is to show you different ideas you can do with bits and  pieces of things.

Here you can see where I just laid it on the top cut the sleeve off and added the dart on the side to fit the sleeve back in and make the bodice tailored.

*******  The bodice originally was just baggy... I have now put a dart in the bottom of the bodice to attach the skirt waistline to the bodice waistline.... so that is a pointing up dart made by trying it on and making it fit at the waist.   This causes some bulk gaping on the top of the bodice just under the sleeve... Now with the altering the sleeve to a set in sleeve I have added a side dart to the bodice ... This makes a fitted bodice...at the bustline

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The other thing that this does is pinch out the extra fabric to fit the new sizing of the set in sleeve as I put it back onto the coat dress top.

The peplum was just lace so it was very nice, but with the added buttons on the rest, I decided the peplum needed the pretty ribbon enhanced gold buttons, too.   SO you see I started out with 3 pieces of 2.97 fabrics... added some expenisve venetian lace trim and then went for the fancy buttons... but I love the look!!!

In case the peplum edges flipped up when I was walking, I backed the edges with interfacing on muslin with some 2.97 lace strips topstitched on... This gave stability for the buttonholes and buttons, but also was pretty if the underedge look.

So, this is just showing you how I make patterns different by cross blending pattern pieces... You can have many different dresses just by pulling pieces from one and putting them on another.  The other thing you can do is always mix textures as in this dress, or Color Block giving total different looks to simple styles...  Making Simple look Complicated, but it is only simple with different colored panels or cuffs collars or bias trims.

REMEMBER HAVE FUN WITH IT.... DON'T MAKE IT WORK....MAKE IT AN ADVENTURE!