Toile Diary; Short shoulder dress

I started off creating the pattern for my short dress by firstly tracing off simple shorter dress block. Then I started to adapt the pattern to fit into my design.

I took out the shoulder dart on the front pattern and re opened it just under the underarm seam. I then drew a line where I wanted the sleeve to attach to the front and back pieces.

I have never used this sleeve method before but I found it relatively easy to pattern and I liked the way I could chose where I wanted my sleeve to fit and where I wanted the seam to meet at the front and back of the garment, which was in the middle of the neck.

I then cut down the line I had drawn on the front and back pattern and separated the 2 parts on each pattern.

After tracing out a standard sleeve block and just narrowing the sleeve by taking 3cm off the bottom at each side, I was then able to stick on the top parts of the front and back dress block I had separated, I had to make sure I attached them at the exact correct point though and made sure I had notched the parts properly to make it easier for me when I had to sew in the sleeves.

I could then trace around my front and back dress blocks that now had the top missing where I had added a seam, I added a 1cm seam allowance and traced around my new sleeve with the two pieces added onto the top and again added a 1cm seam allowance.

As the front had 4 inverted darts, I used the same method I used on my long dress and just divided the dart at the front of the front dress block into 4 separate darts, on my long dress I had 5 darts but as there was a seam going down the center front, I decided 2 seams either side would be enough.

Once I had cut out my patterns out of calico, I started off by sewing in the darts.

I then sewed the two front and back pieces together by sewing down the center fronts with a 1cm seam allowance.

Now that the 2 fronts and 2 backs were sewn together, I could put my sleeves in. I pinned them into place making sure I sewed the right parts together and matched up the correct notches.

The sleeves were actually relatively easy to sew on and I really liked this new method and the effect is gave.

I then sewed the shoulders together with a 1cm seam allowance.

I then sewed along the underarm seam and down the side of my dress with a 1cm seam allowance, so now my dress was more or less all put together. I placed the closed end zip in last and decided to use a closed end zip as i fancied the zip as being a feature in the dress and I did quite like the fact it showed up rather than being hidden like a concealed zip.

I am leaving the hem and sleeves and facing until I create my final garment but I am very pleased with the final outcome and I will look at my final garment to decide whether or not I need to put in any shoulder pads or not but I am pleased with the final look.

I had to lengthen the dress slightly as my toile was definitely too short. I added on about 15 cm onto the bottom. I made my dress following all of these steps in my final fabric, now I'm jut waiting to fit my dress to hem it and face it around the collar.