Princess Colour Dress Toile Fitting

 

  

Above are images before alterations

Today I had my toile fitting for Princess Colour's top dress. I was pleased with how it went and I feel like although there are many changes they aren't things I wasn't expecting. There were a few fit issues I noticed on the mannequin when it was being draped but I wanted to wait til the fitting to really see if they translated the same on my model. Just like on the mannequin it was a little big and has mostly been taken in at the centre back. I've also added a few more bones to make it really stay smooth. There were more changes on the design side of things rather than the fit. Looking at the illustration again we made the neck line a bit more shallow, recognizing that it was a lot higher than I had cut it. It's still a little lower than in the illustration but by adding lace it will raise it a bit more to really fit. The centre front piece has also been made a bit smaller to better fit my model.  The sleeves were another area with a few alterations. Although it wasn't too tight I decided to make the arm-hole a little bigger just for more ease and comfort. As well as making it a bit shorter as it was a little too long. But I was pleased with the size and overall shape. I think the skirt was a great success. I think it will really come alive when it is made out all my different types of fabric. The underskirt seemed to work really well, however my tutor did bring up maybe making a yoke for the underskirt if the pleating adds too much bulk. This will be something to take into consideration because even though my fabric is light I still don't want it to be weighed down in any way.

Side view of shortened sleeve, added bone, and changed design lines

Centre Back View with Alterations

Front View for Changed Seam Line and New Neck Line

Evaluation:

I think this was a very positive fitting. It was my first fitting using a toile I'd draped. I think it did have problems in a few fit areas and design lines but over-all these alterations will be easy to fix on my pattern. In some ways it was difficult to look at this toile during the fitting as a designer and a maker. I think I had to look first at the fit from a maker's perspective and then look at it from the design perspective. I think I could have looked more at my design while I was draping, because the neck-line was a lot lower than it should have been. This is an important thing to realize now because I think I was looking a lot at the historical research more than the design and really should have been an even mix between design and historical research. But I am really pleased with how the skirt looks. I wasn't sure if having even half a skirt for the toile would really be worth the time and fabric but it certainly was. I think going into top fabric I'll be a lot more confident and experimental. 

Front View after Alterations

Side View After Alterations

Back View After Alterations