Going to the Chapel: Kim Dress + Pleated Skirt

Mahwidge. Is there anything more special than celebrating the love of a couple by getting dressed up, wearing impractical shoes, and enjoying an open bar? Certainly not when it's wedding season!

This spring, we were invited to an overwhelming number of weddings: 2. I didn't think too much about what I was going to wear to the first one until a week before, when I remembered that this was a perfect opportunity to make a frivolous dress that didn't have to fit into my permanent wardrobe.

I made a Kim Dress (By Hand London) bodice and added a box-pleated skirt with pockets. The fabric was a rather stiff polyester Shantung from Fabric Mart.

The fabric is still available if you want it!

This was my inspiration picture: this is one of the owners of By Hand London, Elisalex, wearing a Kim Dress bodice and box-pleated skirt in a much nicer (and drapier) fabric than the one I used. 

Blog post about this dress - By Hand London

We left our kiddo with my in-laws, so the mister and I were too high on freedom to really focus on taking pictures of the dress. The one above is actually after dancing wildly for hours so my lipstick is long gone and my hair has been pulled back for practicality.

I also had removed the little bolero top I also made last-minute to go with the dress (McCalls 7254 - I will definitely be writing a blog post about this one soon. You can see a smidge of it in the pic below (and my hot lipstick, for which I received compliments!).

Here's are some progress shots. This is also a good look at what the sewing room looks like mid-project.

My dressform has much broader shoulders than I do, which kind of sucks for fitting because it's a critical fitting area!

I'm sewing out of order here: I added the zipper to the bodice to check the fit, then sewed the skirt onto the bodice front  and back separately, then cut/trimmed extra fabric, added pockets, and sewed the side seams of the skirt. The zipper still hasn't been sewn into the skirt in this picture, or finished on the bodice.

A Look Back at My First Kim Dress, and Thoughts on Fitting a Smaller Body

I had sewn a Kim bodice (with a circle skirt) before about a year ago, to wear to a "Paint the Town Red" event at a conference in Chicago. It's cool to see how much better I am at fitting now -- I remember being pretty proud of my execution at the time, and I even did multiple bodice muslins to improve the fit.

I am a completely different size now, so I was starting from scratch with a new pattern print print out this time around. I don't remember making any major adjustments - I think I just graded up one size between the bust and the waist (smaller at the bust and upper chest).

Since this is one of those patterns that I made before I lost weight and now again after, it's a good case study in how a lot of patterns are much better fitting out-of-the-packet in the lower end of the size spectrum, at least for me.

I have very narrow shoulders and never had much of a bust, even at my largest measurements. Most patterns grade up all over pretty evenly, and this means that when they get bigger to accommodate a bigger waist, they're also getting bigger/wider in the shoulder area. (McCalls size 22 has a shoulder width that hangs 4" down my arm, IIRC - I'm sure there's someone who normally has to do a broad shoulder adjustment who loves this sizing block!)

Admittedly, I am much more skilled at fitting now, but for my first version of the Kim Dress I remember struggling (even after multiple muslins) to stop the straps from falling off my shoulders. The red version is obviously quite loose in the bust area as well, with gaping under the arms.

Every sewist learns their personal modifications over time, and for most people it's unlikely you'll ever be able to sew straight from the original drafting and get a perfect fit in every pattern line all the time.

It was very frustrating though, when I was starting out and had no idea what I was doing, to have patterns fit so poorly. I thought there was something wrong with me - either my body or my sewing skills - when the bigger problem was that a lot of pattern companies don't seem to understand how larger bodies are proportioned.

The magic with making your own clothes vs buying off the rack is that even if the pattern out of the envelope isn't perfect, you can use your skills to make it fit your body. It takes time to develop those skills, but it's so worth it, and when you're wearing clothes perfectly tailored to your body and you look fantastic, it's so clear that there was nothing wrong with your body. No matter your size, everyone has unique proportions and it's just impossible for any clothing manufacturer or pattern maker to accommodate everyone.

That doesn't mean pattern companies should give up on improving the quality of their "plus size" pattern blocks! I'd suggest you check out Andie's post on Sew Pretty in Pink if you want to learn more about the history of the Plus Size Fashion and Sewing Industry and current challenges.