Princess Silhouette Extra Fitting

Today when it came to attach with swing catches my finished skirt to my finished bodice I was shocked to find them radically different sizes. I immediately started to panic, wondering what I had done wrong. Luckily my model Camilla was in University and we were able to have a quick extra fitting. When I put the skirt on first over the corset and cage I could immediately see that it was too large. This wasn't a total disaster, what I was more afraid of was that the bodice wouldn't fit. It was tight but with the help of my tutor we were able to do it up the back. But it was a tight squeeze. There are few reasons this could be; like when I finished my facings it took it in more than it should, or that the corset was tighter for the last fitting, or the addition of stayflex made the fabric a little less giving than in the fitting. There was huge sigh of relief that all I had to change was the skirt. However this taught me a very valuable lesson about finishing things:

*When doing facings and such, air on the larger side just to be sure. Because even when you finish the back there are other places it can be more easily adjusted if necessary. And that in a fitting for a garment that will be finished off in this way to give it a little more wiggle room than I did.

*Also that it is important to look ahead to how the garment will sit on the body. I took my measurement for the skirt waistband by measuring the bottom of the bodice, but I can see now that I should have taken it from the hoop-skirt waist band instead. The bottom of the bodice is curved and therefore my measurement was bigger than it needed to be, but I was worried about swing-catching it and that it might not fit. But if I had made it the same size as the hoop-skirt waistband than it would have sat in the right place and I could have adjusted the swing-catches to fit a bit better rather than adjusting the whole skirt waistband.

Detail of Skirt being a little too large

Side View

Front View

Back View

Back View Detail

Luckily this isn't a huge set back, just a matter of sewing on a few more fastenings. I used the same process to make Princess Colour's skirt so I have a feeling I will have to make the same adjustment.