I made some great progress on the Sew Liberated Clara dress this week.
After making a muslin and checking the fit, I ended up making my usual adjustments:
- I lowered the bust point. Because the pre-existing side dart pointed up sharply, I just changed the angle. It occurs to me that I need to find the ideal spot and angle for the side dart point, then I could recreate it for each garment.
- I made a full-bust adjustment. Truthfully, now that the bodice is nearing completion, I realize that I could have made this a little larger.
- I lengthened the entire bodice by an inch. I usually lengthen by a half-inch, but this pattern seemed to need more. It’s really impossible for me to tell precisely until the skirt is attached, but for patterns from the Big Four companies, it’s usually a half-inch.
Here’s what the altered bodice front looks like:
I traced the pattern with Swedish Tracing Paper but ran out when it was time to make the alterations.
I finished the collar (though it’s not yet full attached) and am pretty happy with the way the cording looks.
The cording makes the collar stand out despite the busy print.
Next up, I’ll be finishing the bodice and tackling the sleeves with the interesting keyhole detail.
Tagged: 118, Clara, Sew Liberated
Jeanne Marie’s Sewing Studio 
Looks good. I like the way you adjusted the pattern. I, recently started working on a muslin first. I found it much easier to make adjustments. The cording looks great. I think it is a perfect match. Can’t wait to see the next phase.
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Thank you! The number of projects that don’t work out have dropped dramatically since I started to doing a muslin for each one. For me, it’s well worth the time and materials invested to prevent the tears!
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Hi Jeanne Marie
Do you have a tutorial which explains how to do the FBA? I’m tackling the same dress pattern 🙂 yours looks fabulous!
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Thank you! I consulted a lot of tutorials and books to figure out an FBA technique that works for me. Here’s a good one that’s pretty similar to what I did for the Clara Dress: https://www.paprikapatterns.com/how-to-do-a-full-bust-adjustment-on-a-dartless-shirt/. Now that I’ve done a few FBAs, I have figured out that I prefer a dart that — instead of going straight to the side seam — goes down at an angle and ends at the side seam about an inch from the waist. That seems to fit me better. Good luck!
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Thanks so much
The big dart down to the side seam near the waist does seem to be a flattering option
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