March 2014 Sewing Camp

Just over two weeks ago I had a chance to spend some more quality sewing time with the BSCP, during the March 2014 Sewing Camp.

 As before the location was Moondyne Convention Centre, lovely as always even if the pastures were looking a bit dry (another really long hot summer here).

 How's this for serenity?:

So, to the sewing! First up here's some bunting the club made to celebrate their first birthday (I joined sometime in the year after):

Pretty huh?
 MY project for the weekend was padding out my dressform so that it looked more "me" shaped and less standard factory line dummy shaped.

This was much more work than I expected as I've found out my body has some interesting fitting issue- one shoulder higher than the other, long shoulder to bust point measurement , one hip higher than the other and one leg longer than the other which no doubt explains some of the shoulder/hip discrepancies.

Thank goodness Sandra had agreed to help me with this- in between her own sewing projects- as it was so out of my area of sewing "knowledge" (I have only recently started to understand fitting issues).

Thank you Sandra and I hope I didn't pester you too much!!!

First up Sandra measured me (pre-camp) and we used then we used the FREE women's fitting bodice from Patternmaker  to print out a basic block.
(**I highly recommend having someone help you take the measurements for you if possible to ensure accuracy of the finished pattern- I was very lucky to have an experienced pattern designer/ dressmaker do mine.**)

Sandra suggested extending the block so that it went past the bottom of the dressform, and raising the armhole (less space to fill in after). 
What I ended up with was a rather nice basic dress pattern, which fit better than anything else I've ever sewn straight from a pattern sans major alterations (sorry forgot to take a picture here)

Then all the ease was taken in, with Sandra pinning it as close to my body as possible:

Yeah that was FUN to wriggle out of! 
I had some awesome pin scratches after- what we do for our hobbies eh?

As a note we didn't insert a zip into this toile, just pinned up the back where the zip would have been. In hindsight I think it would have been heaps easier to just leave the centre back seam unsewn - at least for getting in/out of.

Then came the wadding/padding:

 A couple of layers around the abdomen, a few stacks of wadding to lift the shoulder and some pads of flattened hobbyfill to pad out the breast area:

Hand stitching the wadding

This is still an unfinished work-in-progress. I need to make another session with Sandra so she can cross check the measurements with mine, help me to finesse the padding so that it represents my own body fluff and show me how to finish neck/arm holes /"hem" area.

This is one of the hardest sewing projects I have done lately but I think it will be so worth it when its finally done. Even "as is"  it looks so much more lifelike (if not a little eerie late at night):

Oh and I've decided on a name for my dummy- Hilda! In honour of the redhead pin-up girl :D

Happy Sewing!

Kate x