A first fitting is never pretty. That’s why we do them. It would be impossible to do these types of fine alterations on a finished dress, so it is important to work out all the fitting and perfecting on a garment that you don’t mind tearing up and drawing on.
Michelle’s fitting went really well! I pinned out some unnecessary fullness and we chose a sleeve from the two sleeve options. We decided to lower the back opening, change the collar design and peg the skirt toward the knees. I’m able to pin or draw this all out on the dress on her body so that we can see what the changes will look like and what looks best on her unique figure.
I take the information from all these markings, pinnings and cuts and translate them back into the pattern. Sometimes it is moving a seam, but other times it is eliminating part of the pattern all together. For example, in the photo above, there was a lot of extra fullness in the back that pointed from the bottom of the keyhole detail to her underarms. I pinned it out as darts, but when I go the pattern, I can fold the paper in a way that will eliminate both the fullness from the first pattern and the darts from the correction. When I cut the fabric again, it will be the new flawless shape!
Here’s another photo of the dress pinned and marked after the fitting. Unfortunately I forgot to get a snapshot of Michelle wearing the mockup, so here the dress is back on the form.
We decided to meet one week later to try on the revised mockup for our second fitting.
