(March 2005)

My black dress is finally finished! I have been making this dress in my head for a very long time now =). I used Butterick 4018, did a FBA and then made a muslin. This revealed that I needed a much longer bodice and a bigger size in front, back and sleeves. So, I made a bigger size (14) of the bodice and tapered it to 16 at the skirt.

Looking back I should not have made a bigger bodice, only somehow widened it. Because then my shoulders were too big. I basted my dress and still some things were wrong. It was still a bit too tight and wasn't comfortable. So, I let the whole dress out at the side seams and now it fits better. But if I loose some more weight, I will probably have to make some back darts to make it fit better in the back.

The neckline is a bit too wide for me. Next time I would make some changes. Also I noticed that whenever I make FBA, the neckline starts to gap. I am thinking whether I shoud make a small dart in the neckline before cutting next time.

I love the sleeves and the general silluette this dress creates.

The pattern originally had a very curved horizontal seam. I had to change that a bit on both bodice and skirt, since I had to lenghten the bodice for the FBA. But all in all, I think it came out well.