Fiber Monday - Just call me Maria von Trapp

Here is the current state of my studio table. 


With the fabric woven and finished, it was time to move ahead to the pattern for The Dress. But the wet finishing shrink the dress fabric by about an inch width wise. I always knew this was a possibility, and due to the amount of warp yarn I had, making the fabric wider wasn't an option. So it was time to pivot again. 

I've pivoted so many times in this process, I don't have any idea what plan I'm on now. F? J? Something like that, I'm sure. Because the pattern wasn't wide enough for the simple pattern I had been working on drafting myself, I knew it was time to move to princess seams to get narrower pattern pieces. Princess seams are definitely far beyond my very basic pattern drafting skills. So I dug through my pattern stash. And what do I see right on top? The princess seam version of the dress I was drafting. Hooray! 

It's Burda 7972:


But there was no way I was cutting into my handwoven fabric without being absolutely sure the pattern was going to fit like I wanted. It was time to make another muslin, so back to my stash I went. 

I found some linen like fabric which was approximately the same weight and hand as my handwoven. Even better, it was in a color I liked, so if the muslin ends up working, I'll have a second new dress. I couldn't quite figure out where the fabric came from. Then it hit me... this was fabric left over from when I brought curtains for G. and L.'s room from IKEA. They were miles too long, so I stashed the fabric in my stash. I'm so pleased with myself.

Currently, the muslin pattern pieces are cut out, I've basted the main parts together so I could roughly check the fit (it seems pretty good at this point, and I've unpicked all the basting so I can put it together the correct way now. I'm going to make it exactly as I will out of the handwoven fabric, including making bias tape to cover all the cut edges. I want to be sure I won't have any surprises when I'm actually sewing The Dress.

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