Simplicity 8768 ... one of my last!

Catching up and finishing off is part of retiring, too ... isn't it?

Here are some photos I took while working on this set of 2 dresses last year.

This pattern was an assignment from my design director at Simplicity. And the challenge was how to get make two dresses use basically the same pattern??? 

I love this kind of stuff.

So, I designed a princess seamed dress which allowed me to insert godets in the 2 side front and 2 side back seams to give the long dress the full skirt it needed AND the short dress the slits it needed. One got a collar, one didn't and the other elements could be pattern pieces on their own.

Here is my mock up showing the way the pattern can work for both looks. I pinned the skirt up like this so my design director could see how full the skirt is with the added godets.

By this point I had already worked out the shoulder armor. It was fun making sure the fabric motifs were place just right.

I was still working out the shape for the cape and cape yoke.

Here is the front. Getting the front of the yoke to taper down just right was challenging as was the cross over collar band!!

The shoulder armor and cape yoke use sewable interfacing foam for structure. Bosal is one brand of this stuff. Pellon also makes it.

It is really great ... light weight, holds dramatic shapes other interfacing won't and its it pretty easy to use.

I carefully cut the outer fabric of the shoulder armor and cape yoke pieces first to be sure the fabric motifs were correctly placed, then lay them on the foam interfacing to cut around them.

The foam sews easily with a sewing machine.

But the seams need to be trimmed narrow to reduce bulk.

Or sometime the foam only needs to be trimmed as close to the seam as possible. But, if you have used the fusible kind of foam the fabric has to be pealed away first.

I recommend grading all the different layers in the seam to make a gradual reduction in bulk, having the foam trimmed the closest.

Then any curve ... inner or outer needs clipping.

​I'm writing this at my son's apartment in Seattle. I'm here to help out at his cafe in the Queen Anne neighborhood named KUKO ... check it out! It got a great writeup in the Seattle Times last year! Proud MOM speaking.

And I will be meeting with people at Pacific Fabrics in the hopes I will be able to teach there on my next visit.