Miss Ludivine

Guuuys...

Hi!  Sorry I know I've been MIA, trust me not a day went by that I didn't feel oddly guilty for not posting.  Life has just been a little crazy lately and  then I was out of town for a family thang the second half of last week through this past Monday.  Anyways.... I'm back now and I finally have something completed. ::Phew::

I present to you Miss Ludivine, by Republique du Chiffon:



What a tricky little biznatch she was... sorry... excuse my 'french' (har har), but I didn't realize until I had everything all cut out that she didn't come with built-in SA's.  What the F?? After realizing my heinous mistake, I did a little sleuthing on the world wide web and found out this isn't uncommon with European patterns.  Whelp, now I know I guess.


So me being me, in spite of mistake #1 (not adding SA's) I decided to continue on and just sew with really really narrow SA's.  That made sense right?  clearly even though I was probably down about 4" all around it would be no biggy  because patterns always have lots of ease built in and I'm tiny and I'm good at needle accuracy and I'm clearly just invincible,  right?  Wrong.    Just look at this nonsense that's waiting until I'm in an important meeting to unravel:



::Shudder::  Mistake #2, the black fabric I choose has a nice drape and weight to it, but it frays like a mother F'er. Clearly not the fabric to skimp on SAs with.  I sewed the front panels in with like an 1/8 of an inch and then top stitched them down before realizing just how bad of an idea that really was. A couple areas have already slipped out and had to be re-sewn.  This dress makes me nervous people.



Mistake #3  I might be petite, but my hips don't lie friends, and there was not extra room built in around those bad boys.  So, whats a girl to do? ...Add fatty panels.  Maybe I should refer to them as Phatty instead though... makes me sound 90"s cool instead of just too big for my own dress, lol.


Those of you familiar with this pattern may notice I just nixed the sleeves all together. No SA sleeves was just too much thinking for a hobby that's supposed to be fun. The hem I finished with a 2" facing and the neck and arms with self-fabric bias tape. So that's that.  Many.... ahem... "learning experiences", built into this little dress.

Overall I think the design is really nice and the drafting was well done (especially since this pattern is free, heyo!!).  It has this simplicity that makes it feel really chic.  I do have to say though, and this is a comment I've read on a couple other peoples blogs as well,  it also feels ever so slightly potato sack-y.  The dress hangs straight down between my shoulders and butt, making it feel a little billowy up in thur.  However, I suspect that that's an intentional design element, because it really balances out the short length.  I guess I'm just not so used to wearing this style.

Next time I'm temped to try it out in a knit and take it a little body-con-y.  Any of you think that's a worthwhile experiment or me just being too lazy to add the SAs? ;)

Later peeps.

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