Flea Market Fancy

I was hoping to be able to show you a finished object today, but I'd forgotten how long and fiddly a process it is to understitch a lined bodice. This means that the finished object isn't quite finished yet, so here are a few photos to give you the general idea of what I've been up to.

The first photo is of the pattern and the fabric - Butterick B4443, in Denise Schmidt's Flea Market Fancy. We've made a few modifications to view C (the one in the centre of the pattern envelope), partly for design reasons and partly for a better fit. The skirt's longer, now mid-calf length. The shoulder straps are also narrower than shown, mostly because there was so much excess fabric allowed in the bodice that we had to cut half of it away!

Note to Butterick: Ladies who happen to need a size 20+ pattern do not necessarily have shoulders like an American football player.

The fabric came from Cia's Palette, and as per usual I've ordered far too much. I wasn't sure whether I'd have to cut the skirt pieces singly, so I made sure that I'd have plenty of fabric, just in case. "Plenty" in this instance has turned out to mean approximately double what I actually needed. Oops.

The second photo shows the cursed understitching that I was muttering about. (It's the line of stitching you can see on the lining of the underarm, which doesn't appear on the outside.) Understitching is fiddly, and a nuisance. It takes ages. It's so tempting to leave it out, and go for topstitching instead. But it makes for such a lovely neat finish once all the seam allowances are trimmed, that it would be daft to do it any other way.

The last photo shows the almost-completed bodice. The last step is to sew the shoulder seams together, and then I can join it on to the skirt. Please excuse the fact that my mannequin is ridiculously small. As soon as I can afford it I'll be buying a larger one, and preferably one which can be adjusted a bit more easily than this.

There you go - a sneak preview of a pretty dress, waiting to be worn to a summer wedding.