The Grad Dress part 3 -- cutting table...

For the New Look pattern all I needed to muslin up was the bodice...

So, of course, I unpicked the scrapped Vogue muslin and cut the bodice out of the skirt before I tossed the fail.  :-)

I added a bit to the front to raise the cross over just a bit; when the Flute Player tried it on and I told her that that had been raised about an inch, she gave me the big eyed-jaw drop.

Yeah.  It was pretty much a necessity.

But the only real adjustment I had to make to the muslin was to rotate a quarter inch dart out of the armhole into the tucks.  I dithered over adding a bit more ease to the back...it fit, but only just...and decided I'd probably make something quite acceptable into a mess.  I'll just narrow the side seams a wee bit and I think we'll be good.

I did, however, draft a new skirt.  She wanted more swish and fullness, so I drafted a four-gore half circle skirt.  Tedious, but it will avoid the whole 'cut a bigger size on the bottom' issue.

I hit both Hancock's in town...happened to eat lunch near the one on the other side, so I looked 'round in there...y'know...just in case.  They didn't have anything close to what I had in mind, so I stopped in the one on our end of the parkway on my way home and found a poly dot jacquard with a great hand on the  oddball fabric rack. It's not white-white, more cream or eggshell, but it is dressy w/o looking like it's intended for bridal wear.

There wasn't anything close to that shade for lining, though, and I ended up with white.  I thought it would brighten the face fabric a bit; but now I'm skeered it will just mean all the seams and tucks will be highlighted.

If it is, it is.  There wasn't anything else...and, you know, all the RTW dresses we tried yesterday had seams and such that showed through.  So  I don't know why I'm worried about it.

The skirt panel was too wide to cut on a fold; so I cut the dress and the lining out single layer.

Oy.

But...it's all cut out and ready to go.  I get to do the GBSB deal tomorrow;  the influx of folks for grad festivities begins Tuesday, and my house (and refrigerator!  I can NOT find the smell generator in there!) is a wreck.  I have all day tomorrow...but I ONLY have tomorrow...