There. I said it. It's true. I usually have very little trouble fitting patterns, so I measure them, cut extra wide-seams in the shoulder area, then get started. This very very rarely fails me, and when it does, the problem is usually a little less room than I'd like in the bust area.
Not so with Vogue 9046, the Claire Shaeffer dress with a million tucks.
The inside of the tucks. By number 17, I was starting to crack.
The outside, which hasn't been properly pressed in this picture. Seriously, so many tucks. Do you know how long it took to mark them all? Neither do I. Time ceased to hold meaning for me. I'm pretty sure, for a brief moment, I forgot the taste of bread.
These tucks turned out beautifully, though. All 38 of them. I was happy, and excited to sew my sleeves in, and thought they looked perfectly normal.
Until I tried the damn thing on.
Disregard the filthy mirror (It's a dusty basement mirror) and focus on where the armhole sits. That's like halfway toward the front of my boob! And at least four inches below my armpit proper. Unacceptable, but not something with which I usually have to contend. Vogue 9046 has just issued a challenge, it seems
There are other fit problems, including the waist being too big, which I expected, and also the tucks in the front being too short, giving me an unfortunate potbelly. These are easily fixed by adding tucks to the center back and extending the front tucks a few inches.
No idea what I'm going to do about those sleeves, though. I'm thinking sleeveless, but then I'd have to do something about the ludicrously enormous armholes. Hmm...
