The Zebra Dress Tutorial Begins

So many of you said yes to me doing a tutorial on the dress I wore to the zoo ball, so as promised, here we go.

You can see that the dress is very fitted. The most important step of the process is to have a good fit before any style lines are drawn in. Now I know that we are not all the same shape, but I thought that for the first step of the tutorial, I would show you how I fitted the top in order to achieve the fit that I wanted.

Remember, we are starting with Butterick 5678 as our base pattern.

For this type of garment, I especially like a center back seam as it gives me one more seam for fitting. Very important for the raised neckline that we will be doing later.

 I also went ahead and straightened out the shirttail hem of the pattern.

 The top is not a horrible fit, but it can fit better.

 In the above picture, you can see that there is excess fabric in the upper chest area. I have it pinched in the picture below.

 I also want to take out the extra fabric just under my bust.

 I am very small across the back, so I will use the back princess seam to fit the back.

 I've pinned in the front princess seam so that it is very fitted over the bust.

I pinned in the princess line seam above the bust and it has a much smoother fit now.

 The back princess line seam has been pinned in. I also pinned out a little on the side seam at the waist.

I'm happy with the fit. Now I need to mark where I have placed my pins. I use a piece of black wax.

Be sure to mark both sides before removing the pins. Once the seamm allowances have been readjusted, we'll be ready to go on to the next step

of drafting the collar. As you can see, the collar began as the collar that I did for this top. You can find that tutorial here, http://www.sewnews.com/blogs/sewing/2013/05/28/rhonda-buss-the-raised-collar-neckline-tutorial/

Next Tuesday I will show you how to draw in the style lines and draft the cap sleeve.

An Update On The Dress

I'm moving right along on my dress, so I thought I would share a couple of pictures. 

As it always goes, I end up making changes once I start the actual project. I had added a little fold over piece under the bust, but now that I have the dress together, I've decided to not add it.

Remember, there will be a black bustier under the dress, so I will not be making a "statement" here!!!

All in all, I'm super happy with the dress. I've had it on about 5 times this morning and I like it more each time I try it on.
I'll try to come back tomorrow with another update.