OND '13: Patterning and Mock up

I got the pattern and mock up for my opening night dress 2013 thrown together this week. I used a pretty basic McCall's pattern as a starting point. I have a sloper for my skirt, but I never took my bodice apart from my patterning class so just decided to start with a commercial pattern. Ideally of course I would drape the pattern because I like to see proportion on a form, but I don't have one. It's good to work on my drafting!

I cut the bodice off the pattern, moved the dart to the neck and made it a pleat, lengthened the torso and did my shoulder and hip alterations. It's a lot of work, but is so tedious I love it!

The skirt was something else. I just kind of took my waist measurement and drew my hip line and blah blah blah flared the back and added a train, then did this other thing that seemed to make sense. At the end of the day it's a little too full. The mock up fabric is much lighter than the medium weight jersey I have. Too bad I had to flip the pattern so one of the patterns is not sparkly, otherwise I'd totally finish and wear this skirt! Heck, there's enough fabric in there I'm sure I could figure it out. 

I married the bodice to the skirt (I always giggle when I hear people say to "marry" pieces together. It makes sense, and it's super professional sounding, it just gets me sometimes) and ta da! I kind of hate the pleats in the neckline. I'm sure I might be able to fix and keep them, but I'm not wild enough about the look so I'll just take them out.

Since this is a knit I can tell from just jimmy rigging myself into it that it's too big. That's usually how it goes. I made the pattern to my measurements so it's typical that I'll have to take it in. I'll do a proper fitting today or soon to figure how much and to work out some other hiccups. I don't put sleeves in until I know my shoulder issues have been worked out, so I'll do that too.

The pictures are pretty dumb, but I'll take better ones with my real camera later, maybe?