Hi, sorry it has been so long since my last post, it has been not so much manic as blugh, Simon has been away a lot, which in theory should give me a lot of spare time but in actuality just means I read a lot more 😦

I have made another Gertie shirtwaist dress, which went together slightly better but that could have been because I made a straight size 6 (US) instead of grading between 4-6-4, the first dress was a little tight across the top of the bust so I figured the larger size would be fine and as the skirt has so much material in it extra over the hips I felt that an extra size wouldn’t make a difference.

I do think that there is a slight drafting issue, I don’t know if it affects all the sizes but it does affect size 6, If I had used the notches on the shoulders the top would have been a very funny shape.

Denise will be glad to hear that the pleats gave me almost as much trouble the second time round as the first. At least I knew what it should look like this time!! I don’t know what I was doing but with the first side, it didn’t matter how I folded the pleats I had two together and one by its self, it wasn’t until I folded the other side I managed to get it to sit properly, I still don’t know what I was doing wrong on the first side.

I needed to fudge the shoulders otherwise the collar wouldn’t fit, I pinned the collar at the notches and the shoulder seam, which left me with almost an extra inch and half of top fabric more than collar.

If you make this dress, I suggest you check the front skirt facing is long enough and that the pleats fold in a nice easy three pleats together and the top dart lines up with the first pleat.

Bye for now…