Major pattern surgery Part 3

My major sleeve concern was this - when I'd laid out my sleeves, I thought the upper portion looked kind of small, and I was really hoping they would fit in my upper arm.

So, sewing up - that's what I was worried about. Turns out, it fit ok, but in a completely puffy, horrific, 80's way that almost made me abandon this project right off the bat.

But... my goal was to learn something out of this project, so I kept going.

The skirt is huge on this thing!!!!! Its all the gathering. I wanted to change this around - yards of fabric gathered around my hip is not a flattering look for me.

I thought I'd try inverted pleats - I'd seen a few in stores, and thought it might be a good look.

(Right here is the scary part - I'm making design changes to the dress. But I'm not a designer. Good sense would indicate I should stop. But no...)

Some sewing later (attaching sleeves and skirt) I had this monstrosity.



So many things were wrong with this dress at this point. (The fit's fine, I just haven't attached the zipper yet.)

1. I'd calculated my inverted pleats wrong, so nothing matched at any seam. Serious seam ripping lay ahead.

2. Those sleeves!!!!! How I hate, loathe and want to burn those sleeves. I look like a reject from the 80s clown factory.

I gnashed my teeth in frustration, balled this up and threw it in a corner. Then I went and made myself a patchwork scarf.

There's a slightly happier conclusion to this. I unballed the dress, and at present stage, have fixed sleeves, fixed pleats and attached zip. I'll provide an update when I'm all done with this.