Simplicity 3877

Jim was gone this weekend so I was able to fill it with completely selfish activities (well, that isn’t entirely true…all of the laundry is done). His niece is getting married August 1 and I was hoping to make a new dress for the occasion. I though Simplicity 3877 would be perfect. We looked for fabric while were were out in Arizona last time and I found this great polyester? print for only 2.99 a yard at SAS Fabric.1 I finally got to work on it yesterday. After reading the comments at patternreview.com I thought I should probably do a muslin of the bodice…I NEVER do that and I *thought* I was glad I did. I cut the 14 pattern with the D cup and it seemed pretty loose (I wanted it to be close fitting) so I decided to cut the 12 with the C cup instead. DUH. Should you really do TWO adjustments without checking? The answer would be no. The answer to whether one should forgo the wraptop and just sew the flap into the seam would also be no. I kind of suspected early on there were issues, which is why I didn’t do the arm facing. I figured I should just whip out the skirt part so I could see if the bodice was as short as I thought it was.2 The only thing that made me happy about the whole debacle is that the collar looks freaking fantastic.

Long story shorter, the bodice is too short, the front facing is incredibly fussy with this fabric (would maybe line the whole thing instead) and I’m not sure I even like the print when it is all chopped up like this. I put the disheveled, unfinished dress on my form so you can get an idea of what happened. It looks way better on the form than it does on me! I’m not sure what my plan is yet. I’ll either try this pattern again with a solid fabric and research how to line the bodice or just choose another one entirely and try again. Or I may just go shopping.

1. If you’re ever out there be sure to go…huge warehouse , all kinds of fabric remnants, great prices. [↩]
2. Like I couldn’t tell there was a problem when it was inches above my bellybutton. [↩]