I Have a Party Dress

After much agonizing and back-and-forth with myself, I settled on a pattern and made a dress:

The fabric is Minerva’s crush velvet in the Celestial Motion print. (I made a Nathalie top out of this same print on their French terry fabric.) So luxurious. I had ordered three meters of this back in the fall to make myself a Christmas dress and ran out of time. This fabric was the lead contender for a party dress, but I have been waiting to see if I could get some idea of what the weather will be like when I am at Sew Expo, because a crush velvet dress wouldn’t be appropriate if temps were going to be on the warm side. As it turns out, it looks like winter will be hanging on in the Pacific Northwest. It is supposed to be chilly that week.

It’s hard to tell on the dress form, but the pattern is the 5 Out of 4 Patterns Nancy Raglan. I made the A-line dress version. The Nancy Raglan is one of the first patterns I bought when I began making clothing for myself and it remains a favorite. The cowl neck is perfect, not too large, and it lies beautifully when I’m wearing the dress.

I had exactly enough fabric. The raglan seams were stabilized with knit stay tape before serging them, because the fabric has enough weight that I didn’t want the dress to stretch in that area. I love the way it looks and fits. I’m also ahead of the game (for once) because this will probably end up being this year’s Christmas dress.

Crush velvet has a reputation of being difficult to work with, but the biggest problem I had with this fabric was the amount of lint it left behind. I had to vacuum out my serger several times along the way.

************

I am wrestling with a fitting question and I cannot find an answer to it anywhere. My bodice sloper—the one I made in Joe Vechiarelli’s class at Sew Expo last year—has a horizontal bust dart. Most of the patterns I see have bust darts that angle upwards. I’ve used that bodice sloper many times over the past year to make sure that the bust darts in commercial patterns were at the correct level and ended in the right spot, but the fact that the bust dart is horizontal went completely over my head until a few days ago.

When someone with Joe Vechiarelli’s level of knowledge and experience says the bust dart on your bodice sloper should be positioned a certain way, there has to be a reason for it. So I went looking for further information. I searched on “bust dart angle” and “horizontal versus angled bust darts” and nothing came up—nothing substantive. I got a lot of results that discuss the location and placement of bust darts, but nothing that indicates why one would choose an angled versus a horizontal bust dart. I found one Threads video where the designer mentioned that angled darts are better for “mature figures,” but didn’t explain why.

I have a theory, but I can’t believe that I am the first person to recognize the difference. The husband says that maybe this is one of those situations that is so obvious that no one feels the need to elucidate it.

My theory is that a bust dart that angles upward places the 3-D tent of fabric such that it provides the most room at the bottom of the tent. This would make sense if one thinks of the bust as needing more room at the base and less room at the top. A horizontal bust dart, on the other hand, swings the positioning of that tent vertically to provide an more equitable distribution of fabric over the bust.

I needed to test this theory. Admittedly, this is a rather crude way of doing it, but I think I am on the right track. I made two bodice pieces out of Pellon Easy-Pattern. One has an angled bust dart and one is copied from my sloper, with the horizontal dart. Both darts are otherwise identical. I hung them from hangers and took a photo from the side:

I think there is a difference. I also suspect I would get a better fit if I actually used horizontal bust darts instead of angled ones. An angled bust dart provides the necessary extra room (even though it may not look like it from this photo), but it also results in the area below the bust dart looking like a maternity top.

Argggh. Now I think I need to go back through all my patterns and reposition my bust darts. I’m itching to play around with this idea, but it’s going to have to wait until after Sew Expo. Joe is going to be at Sew Expo again this year, so if I have the opportunity to ask him about bust darts, I will.

And not one of my fitting books has a single sentence about this.

************

The husband ordered a new motor for the furnace fan. Our house is 28 years old, so stuff is failing right on schedule. Amazingly, my original Amana dryer is still going strong, although the husband has replaced a few parts. The husband probably has a list of home improvement projects to work on while I am in Seattle. He likes to tackle those when I am not around to interfere or provide commentary. 😇