Question about copying a dress

Hi all, I am trying to copy/alrter a dress I have. I love this dress but it is too tight in the hips so I made a muslin copy. I have been studying the original dress and I think I did a good job adjusting the hips and the skirt fits well. I am just having trouble getting the bust correct though. The dress has an empire waist (that's what it's called when it's right below the bust, right?) and the attached strappy bodice is tight across the bust but gapes towards my armpits. I have tried taking measurements of the pieces and I just can't quite wrap my brain around how to tighten the part by my armpits part and loosen the part by the bust. If this doesn't make sense I can try to add pictures of my actual dress tonight but so far this is the closest I could find on the web:

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this dress, the front bodice on mine is formed by two pieces- oneover the left bust and one over the right- joined with a verticalcenter seam. Unlike this one, my dress has a completely horizontalseam where the bodice meets the skirt and there is just a skirtinstead of that contrasting waist band. Also, my dress has a dart oneach bust piece and is gathered some on either side of that dart.If this doesn't make sense, like I said I can post pic of my problembut I can't stop thinking about it so I wanted to get it out there.Any help woul dbe greatly appreciated!-Laura

Reply to
Laura.Marschel
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Dear Laura,

On your muslin, simply pin out the gap. Do it from the right side, so that if you are different on one side from the other, the alteration will be correct. (Doing any alteration with the garment wrong side out will affect the finished garment--unless, of course you are the same on both sides.) Then, turn the garment wrong side out, and chalk over the pinned alterations, and remove the pins. You will have perfect stitching lines to follow.

To add where you need it, slash the muslin in that area, and add a patch. The alteration should be smooth. After you get a perfect fit, use the muslin as your pattern by ripping all the seams, removing the seam allowances, but leave the alteration markings.

I hope you can show us a picture when you're done.

Teri

Reply to
gpjteri

Thanks Teri! That actually helps a ton and makes perfect sense to me! I will post a picture when I finish. :)

-Laura

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Reply to
Laura.Marschel

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