The Evil 1930's Dress!!!

So I finally forced myself to start work on the 1930's tea dress.

deceiving simplicity

 And as expected it's not going so well. I had a bad feeling as soon as I looked at the pattern the customer had brought me. At first it looks rather straight forward but then it turns out it's full of darts and bias cut fabric and what not.
The dress put up a fight before I ever got around to actual construction. The pattern itself is totally messed up. First the sizing was all skewed. The measurements I had taken off my client called for a size 22 according to the size and yardage chart on the pattern, when in reality she's more of a 14. Now I am aware that pattern sizes and dress sizes are not the same, but I measured the actual pattern pieces and I was rigth the size would have been way to big.. So I chose the correct size according to the measurements I had and the measurement of the actual pattern and then I traced the pattern onto a shower curtain.

Yes a shower curtain! The flimsy kind form the dollar store is great for patterns they are thin enough that they are semi trasparent for easy tracing, but much sturdier than tissue paper, they handle a lot like fabric so you can pin, pleat and manipulate and best of all  they are cheap!  After tracing and cutting out the shower curtain pattern I discovered that the skirt part was much larger than the bodice part it is supposed to attach to. Oh fun. I hate it when patterns are faulty and don't match up correctly, I mean I get patterns because I don't want the hassle of having to draft them myself so when I have to re draft a purchased pattern it defeats the purpose...

Re drafted shower curtain pattern

 But i had some re drafting to do as was so it was just some more changes on top what i had already planed to do. The original skirt back had 3 pieces, the middle piece had this weird ruched thing going on, all topped off by a big bow right on the derriere. Now what woman wants a rushed butt with a bow on it ( well other than a 1980's bride) ? I mean even in the 1930's that may not have been the most figure flattering thing. Not surprisingly the customer requested I  remove the rushing and the bow.

See the ruched butt part? Not really attractive...

 So I drafted out the rushed middle piece and now the skirt back is just one piece, much better and more flattering than the ruffle butt look. Next I got some fantastically  ugly polyester fabric from the stash (got a whole 5 yard bolt  of it from Wal Mart for $3 a while ago) and cut out a mock up. The skirt was cut on the bias fold.I haven't done much work with fabric cut on the bias so I'll see how this skirt works out... 

Super ugly green floral polyester fabric!

And that's where I am now with this project. Next I need to transfer the pattern markings for all those lovely tucks and pleats and darts on the bodice and then I'll put it together, hopefully it will all go smoothly but I know better than that!