Staycation sewing

Yesterday was a very productive sewing day, not so much yet today.  The dress is almost complete.  I need to finish the neckline, hem the sleeves and dress--then done.

I am not one of those lucky sewist who made this dress without a lot of fitting and adjusting.  I made 1.5 FBA and kept the dart.  I trimmed the shoulder length by 3/8 using a technique from Sandra Betzina.  I made my usual forward shoulder adjustment as well as 5/8 high round back adjustment.

I sewed the front and back shoulders together and then basted the side seams for fitting.  I had a lot of pulling in the back waist area right above my hips.  I have a narrow upper back area right above the waist line.  My front has a little pouch.  This always creates some fitting issues with dresses without darts.

To fix the pooling, I printed out a back bodice pattern using Pattern Master Boutique that had a vertical back dart.  I laid the pattern piece over the back fabric and marked two darts aligning the center back of the pattern with the center dress back.  This helped tremendously.

I then ended up taking deeper side seams (about an inch)  from below the waist to the bottom of the dress.  I am pleased with all of these adjustments and hope to share photos soon.