This is what the wax print shirt dress looks like when I wear it! I have to repeat, I'm really out of the habit of posing for pictures and I don't have a lot of patience for it anymore. As a result, there are just two pictures and they are not the best. On the other hand, they give a better idea of the real fit than those on the dummy.
Oh, and they show how well these faded bright colours work on me.
The back is important because I made a pattern choice there which worked out really well. I've been training for rock climbing for the past years and, as a result, the muscles in my shoulders, back and upper arms are now bigger than they ever were before. In fact, I am more muscular all round and obviously that has an impact on how my clothes fit. I am thinking about re-doing my slopers but I don't think now, when a lot of normal day-to-day rhythm isn't there, is the time.
For this dress, I used my existing sloper but chose a back design to maximize room for arm movement: It has a back yoke which is placed higher on the back than the bottom points of the shoulder darts and all the remaining width from the darts at the back (bottom part of the shoulder dart and waist darts) has been converted to deep pleats under that yoke. The pleats fall more or less on the shoulder blades. Combined with the sleeve, which is a sort of half shirt sleeve, wider and with a shallower sleeve head than the tailored sleeve you draft with a bodice sloper, this gives great ease of movement without really compromising on look and shape. I think I will use this quite a lot...
Oh, if you are interested in doing this as an alteration but you can't make out how to based on my description, let me know in the comments (or email if Blogger won't let you comment). I could do a tutorial but it is a bit of work so I would like to know it would be of use to somebody.
Great dress. I love the colours in that fabric.
ReplyDeleteI am always interested in pattern alterations that allow more movement through the back and arms.