Ikat Emery Dress and the Tale of the Missing Bodice

Here, against the picturesque backdrop of my neighbor's collection of broken lawnmowers, is a navy ikat Emery Dress.

My first Emery was a cute stripey one I made about a year ago when Christine first released the pattern. I really love it, but sadly the fabric is a huge pain to iron, so it doesn't get worn very often. This, I assure you, is a tragedy, because it really is very cute. I think that this one will be a little more lazy-launderess friendly. It's made out of a light but sturdy navy ikat from The Fabric Studio.

I thought that I had a bodice piece with my changes on it from the first time around. I really thought I did. But when I opened my Emery ziploc bag, there was none to be found. The only one in there was one without any alterations. So maybe I was mistaken?

Or...maybe I'll just pretend to forget I had done any alterations and forge ahead like nothing's wrong? Yes, yes, let's go with that.

I was pretty sure that I had lowered the bust darts originally, and a simple fit with the pattern tissue confirmed this. I measured how far down I wanted to move the dart, then just literally hacked it out of the paper and retaped it lower. Not a pretty sight, but it worked.

So after that I got to it, and as I was plugging along everything was going smoothly, except...the bodice was looking kinda short. Hm. Oh no, this is really short. I don't remember the last one being so short.

Oh wait, it's all coming back to me now. Yes. I had originally lengthened the bodice by 1.5" or so.

Well then, I guess...WAISTBAND!

My compensation waistband fixed the problem pretty well, although I may have made it just a touch too wide because now there's a bit of extra fabric right above the waist. But if I have really good posture it's hard to tell.

I've talked before of my love for crazy linings. For this one I used an Anna Maria Horner voile that I had in my stash. Boom! Pow!

I do love the skirt on the Emery, I know it's a good ol' basic gathered skirt but it's the perfectly right proportion or something because I always like how it turns out. You can also slap it on just about any bodice, something I'll be showing you for my next finished garment post once I get around to taking some pictures.

So despite the missing bodice and my terrible sewing memory, this ended up okay. Woohoo! And at least now it's been recorded on the interwebs in case I forget again.

Have a lovely week, and I hope you're enjoying the change of seasons wherever you are!