Gala Gown: The Bodice

It is time to rip that muslin apart, but not before marking the dart lines and marking which piece is which.  In this particular case, it is quite obvious, but it is also important to know which is the right side and wrong side so those asymmetrical design pieces will match up. 

There is something very satisfying about working with a seam ripper on a muslin (or maybe I am just strange).  It probably has something to do with getting started on the actual project!

After separating all of the pieces, a good press with a hot iron makes everything lay flat.

Because my fabric has a bit of drape, and for added stability, I underlined the pieces with cotton (the pattern suggests sew-in interfacing).  This also makes it much easier to mark darts!

I used a quilting pencil to lightly draw the darts on the wrong side of the underlining.  These pieces were then placed on the fabric, right side to wrong side, and cut out.

And the hand basting begins!  I actually find this rather relaxing.  Not only did I baste the outer edges, but also the darts just inside the stitching line.  This way the two pieces will not shift when I finally sew those darts together.  And this time around I was a good girl and kept everything flat on the table as I worked.  No shifting allowed!

To help everything stay in place during my hand basting, I added a few extra pins in the middle of the marked dart.

For some strange reason, I always seem to pick fabric that likes to fray or shred mighty easily.  This bodice will be lined with some light colored bemberg rayon, which is basically see-through.  

In the interest of making everything look pretty, and to keep myself from going crazy with the fabric edges shredding right before my eyes, I sewed a length of rayon binding along the edges.

You didn’t think I was going to let my Hug Snug miss out on this big project, did you?!