When I saw the pictures of Myosotis View A I fell in love. I particularly loved the back view. The way the bell sleeves accentuate the waist is just gorgeous!
I had a pink linen-like textured mystery crepe in my stash which had a bit of weight to it, but also a lovely drape. I had just enough to do the View A sleeves with View B skirt cut on the crossgrain. I also had to cut my facings from another fabric. I used a contrast cotton for that. And I picked up some silver buttons from Spotlight.
I had to adjust the bust dart height down by an inch. This also meant I had to shorten the front waist darts so that they didn’t run up over my apex! I cut an extra 2cm in seam allowance on the shoulders in case I might need to do a forward shoulder adjustment. However after basting the shoulder seams in for a fitting concluded that a shoulder adjustment wasn’t necessary. Although wearing it today, I think I should have done the shoulder adjustment after all.
I love boxy shaped dresses on other people but don’t love them on me. So I sized down one size so that my waist wouldn’t be lost. This caused some problems later on that I hadn’t anticipated. The dress fit beautifully, but it was almost impossible to get on/off as the waist was too small to go over my bust/shoulders or hips.
I had done French seams so I really didn’t want to unpick the side seams to let the waist out. So I considered a few different options, including: letting out the back darts; putting in an invisible zip; putting buttons down the front of the skirt. In the end the simplest solution was to put a continuous hidden skirt placket in to open up the waistline. I only needed a few extra inches. The other benefit of this approach was that I only had to unpick about six inches of the skirt from the bodice to make this modification.
I followed this method from the Bella Sunshine Designs blog to make my placket. I made my placket wider, about 1″ wide (to minimize anything showing if it gaped at all) and only 1.5″ tall. It blends in really well with the gathers. I had to hold it open for the photo below to make it obvious where it is. Wearing it out today though I found the placket did gape a bit when I was sitting. I will probably put a snap / hook and eye inside the placket to hold it closed.
All in all, I am really happy with how the placket adjustment has worked for me.
I thought it was interesting that the pattern instructions didn’t say to ease the sleeve cap into the armsyce. I found that it was necessary to get a clean finish on the sleeve insertion.
My final decision to make was about where I wanted the hem to sit. I think a shorter hem helps to reduce some of the frumpiness factor of a boxy waist, so although I would normally be more comfortable with knee length, I chose to hem it a bit shorter.
Given the weight and poly content of this fabric, I think I will be wearing this Myosotis over jeans or leggings while it’s cooler. I am considering taking the hem up further to a tunic length.
Bec Walker 