Here's another one that's close:
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back is different. But you could get close to it. I am always thefirst to encourage folks to jump in with both feet. ;) You do have almost5 months before the wedding. So figure you have 3 1/2 months to work onthis. You will need the rest of the time to organize everything else. Picka pattern you like. One that's as close as you can get to what you want.Then yes, you will have to do some pattern altering. How you alter willdepend on the pattern pieces. When I need to add a lot, or take out a lot,I look at how the piece is designed to fit the body. Sometimes you can getaway with adding around the outer edges and that's all. But most of thetime, the best way to go is to cut the pattern pieces and add in the middlealso.
Here's what I think you should do. Buy 2 copies of the pattern in as close a size as you can get to your own. Buy a ton of cheap fabric in a similar hand (how the fabric drapes, feels, etc.) to what you want your real dress made up in. Now make start making muslins. Muslins are mock ups of the garment. Think of muslins the way you thought of rough drafts of writing assignments when you were in school. That's basically what they are (and can come in handy as really great Halloween or party costumes later on. lol) Make one muslin (at least the bodice) in the size that's closest to your size. You may be surprised, some of the pattern lines run larger than they seem at first, and that might actually work for you. But what doing that will tell you is WHERE you need to add and how much you need to add. Smart huh? Then proceed from there. Make all your changes to one copy of the pattern. Don't do a thing to that other copy. That way, you will have it to refer back to as you make changes. Experiment with adding to the outer edges and with cutting the pieces up the middle and adding there. What I try to do is spread the added bits out around the whole body. What seems to work best is some added in the middle, some added to each edge. Make sense?
And don't get hung up at all on size numbers. They are just numbers. Pooh-pooh on them. ;) What you want to do is line up the garments measurements with your own. So measure at the bust, waist, hip, etc. on the pattern. The figure out how much you need to make that equal your measurements plus a little bit. You need ease in the garment. Ease is that tiny bit bigger than your body measurement at each point; this allows the garment to move when your body is in it, rather than rip at the seams. Make sense? Now, on this dress, I would guess that you want zero ease at the bust, that way the dress will be the same as your bust measurement and give "the girls" that pushed up look. Know what I mean? But at the waist, I would think you'd want about 1 1/2" - 2" of ease so you can actually inhale and sit down. ;)
Boy I hope that makes sense. Long and short. Yeah, I think you can do it. I'm always amazed at what people can do when they really want to. However, if the first muslin has your hair standing on end, and people are scared by the new vocabulary you start tossing around (or pointing and yelling "potty mouth" lol) then you might be better off to find something else.
In that vein....where are you? There are a lot of folks on here that do custom sewing for hire. (me for one, although my business is on hold since we will be moving 4 states over in a month or so...) You might be able to find someone on here that could do the dress for you and save you the stress. Worth a shot. You can also go to
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find someone close to you. That's an organization for sewingprofessionals. They are all over the US.Good luck and if you do dive right in, ask any questions you have. You willhave more as you go along, trust me. ;) We all love to help. So don't beshy.
Sharon