Blue Bees 2

Time for another installment! I figured the wait until New Year's Eve with Kate visiting was as good a time as any to actually get started on our Blue Bees dress. And the first step is designing. I had the dress design in my head, but contrary to popular belief Kate and I don't actually share a brain and she wanted a sketch. Fair enough. I used a website that specializes in real bodies for fashion sketches to aid my poor art skills. 

Kate poses for the camera - We had a bodice pattern traced on paper at this point.

There are more bodice pattern generators online than you might think. Our heritage has betrayed us in the past though, as the German bodice worked best, followed by Italian. But this was our attempt at an English dress, so I went with a pattern generator I'd used before with mixed results.

Paper pattern generated and modified! I have pinned a possible overdress neckline on one half.

In true Sound of Music fashion, the fabric mock up was made of old curtains. Honestly, I was just happy I got the sleeve pattern generator to work for the fitted sleeves I had planed for later. The V-front design has been modified for our rounder torsos, and the lacing was planned for the front sides.

Kachel the dress dummy wore this bodice for several weeks until we moved on to the second step...