Summer of Dresses - New Look 6097/Lady Skater Mash-up

Hey parade goers, are you ready for a little ditty?
She did the mash, she did the pattern mash, (the pattern mash).  It was a cutting room smash (she did the mash) It was over in a flash (she did the mash) She did the pattern mash.  Waaaaa Ooooooo.....
Now that I've evilly infected you all with an ear worm let's take a look a the next dress in our parade. 

I threw New Look 6097 and the Lady Skater patterns in a dark drawer, left them unattended, and they made me a pretty baby! 

This was just supposed to be a muslin for the New Look bodice, but then I put the Lady Skater skirt on it just for kicks. The fabric is a super cheap rayon/polyester/lycra jersey, the kind that starts piling almost immediately.  Despite that I find myself reaching for this dress again and again. 

The bodice is constructed according to the New Look directions except that I did away with the neckline facing. Instead the seam allowance was folded under and stitched down with the coverstitch machine The sleeve and skirt hems were finished the same way.  A twin needle would also do the job if you are without a coverstitch machine. If this bodice wasn't supposed to be only a muslin I would have stabilized the neckline with some fusible web.  Lucky for me it doesn't seem to be stretching out of shape.

I only had to take in my bodice side seams 1/4" to get the Lady Skater skirt to fit.  This might vary with different sizes so measure your waist seams and make a suitable adjustment.

The New Look bodice did need a major length adjustment for my short waisted self.  New Look did not provide any shorten/lengthen lines which seems like a major oversight for this type of design.  You don't want to just chop off the pleats at the bottom!  Fortunately my latent pattern drafting brain cells kicked and reminded me how to do it.  I even took pics so everyone gets a How-to.

How to Shorten a Wrap bodice
Step 1
Draw a line perpendicular to the grain line on the upper part of the bodice.  You want it to be above the pleats.  New Look 6097 side seam notch was in a perfect place for this guide line.

Step 2
Mark the amount of length you need to remove by drawing a second guide line parallel to the first guide line.  I needed to remove 2" so the guide lines were 2" apart. You can draw the second line either above or below the first.  Mine is drawn in above.

Step 3
Fold the pattern so the guide line 1 meets guide line 2. Tape the fold down. Now your bodice is shorter but we have a jagged looking neckline.

Step 4
Tape some paper behind the fold in the neckline area. Using a french curve or a hip curve eyeball a new curve for the neckline.  Whatever looks aesthetically pleasing to you is correct.  Some parts of pattern drafting are precise and some are just winging it.  This is a winging it moment. I decided to take away paper on the lower part of the pattern.  My bust sits low so I need less fabric in that location.

Step 5
Cut off the extra paper and then repeat these steps for the other side of the bodice.  Since the back has no pleats I took the easy route and just cut 2" off the bottom. Easy peasy.

If you needed to lengthen a wrap bodice the steps would be almost the same.  Instead of folding the pattern you would slash and spread it to the new length. Tape in some paper and then continue on with Step 4.

One last tweak to the bodice was to take in the bottoms of the sleeves. I overlocked the underarm part of the sleeve so that it was flush with the side seam.  This took care of the bottoms of the sleeve flopping around in an odd manner.  I think the armhole is a little bigger than it needs to be, but this is an easy fix for a RTW look.

It's not as exciting as my last dress but I can wear my new awesome sandals with it.  Tweet Tweet. (You can get some from Modcloth if you're so inclined)

They make me want to do this...

Wheeeeeeeee! Birds!