I have a new dress to show you, I made it from Gerties Ultimate Dress Book, If you remember when I made the Dress for Liz I had a problem with the waist, well it turns out it wasn’t all me not cutting the dress on the fold, there is something completely out with the sizing.

The first bodice I made was size four going to size six, I did a small bust adjustment, but instead of taking all the fabric out of the side dart I decided to take half out of the waist dart. These darts are huge to start out so I thought it would be best. It was too small in the chest and in the waist, I measured myself again, the waist size should be fine if anything it should be too big, I have a 27 inch waist and the pattern was supposedly for 28 inch, at this point I thought I had miscalculated when redrawing the waist dart,

my second attempt was a straight size 6  SBA this time I took all the fabric from the side dart. I made a second muslin it was a bit tight, but it got done up I didn’t think any more of it.

I made the changes to the bodice pieces as per one of the posts on Gertie’s blog, cut into my fabric and made up the dress. It went together really easy, I basted the zip in tried it on and couldn’t get the zip done up. 😦 miles too tight I took the sideseams apart and used a 3/8 seam allowance a bit better but I still couldn’t breath or sit down once it was done up, then I did what I should have done in the beginning, I measured the pieces, they added up to 26inches, the waist on my supposed 28 inch waist pattern was 2 inches out and that was without ease what was going on here, so then I got the pattern sheet out and measured that and sure enough that was also out 2 inches.

I didn’t have enough fabric to re-cut the bodice pieces so I had to steal the extra out of the 4 waist darts, I can now get the dress done up and move about in it, I do need to revisit the alteration to the side seams as one side appears to be a bit wonky but other than that the dress went together very nicely.

I had read on the internet that the midriff piece was wrong, but it looks like it could be affecting all the waist sizing. I had already been slightly concerned because the skirt didn’t seem particularly long, I’m 5ft 2″ (and a bit) it come to just below my knees and the bodice didn’t need shortening, though I did take about 1/2 inch out of it in the end.

I am concerned though that the publisher hadn’t checked the pattern sheets before printing, especially seeing there is a printing error in Gerties first book and I’m still not convinced on the sleeve pattern for the shirtwaist dress. I have the second book as well but I haven’t made anything from it yet.

I am going to make the same dress but use the bodice pieces from sew many dresses so as I can do a direct comparison and give you my thoughts on both books.