S2464, The Bumblebee Dress

The issue with Simp 2464 and Sophie is that she is very tall and thin. The very odd shaped bodice piece needed to be lengthened and this is how I did it. I began by tracing the size 4 pattern as it came out of the envelope. I wanted to preserve the various sizes and decided to trace rather than cut the pattern out. I lined up my triangle with the straight of grain to get the cross grain and marked that at what I arbitrarily decided was the shoulder, or at least where a shoulder seam would go if there was one. Drew that line.

The bodice needed to be lengthened one inch on front and back. On either side of my arbitrary shoulder line I drew a red line one inch away. Doesn't this piece have a confusing shape? I ended up labeling everything as you will see.

I put the original tracing, now cut out, on the white table. I laid another piece of tracing paper on top. Then the area with the shoulder line only was traced out. I slid the bottom piece up one inch, keeping the grainlines matching and meeting the black shoulder line with the red line.  I traced that "end" part of the pattern piece. I then did the same thing to the other side of the bodice, sliding the black line down one inch to the red line and drawing in the area at the end of the pattern piece.

 The bottom tracing sheet was then slid back into place with the black shoulder lines matching and the remainder of the piece was traced and completed. You can see the two pieces traced out and the different lengths.

The traced, extended bodice piece now got traced onto the block of linen. I used a wheel and wax free dressmaker's carbon, only outlining the pattern piece on the cutting line, no other details like notches, etc. After that was complete I realized I marked two right sides. No problem. The linen was the same on either side so I just flipped one bodice over. Since it is such an unusual shape and sometimes you just don't want to leave things to chance, I marked the block outside of the cutting line with what part of the bodice it was, ie, neckline, front waist, etc.

This technique of "sliding" can be used with most shapes that need extension and preservation of the details. It does require truing the seams a bit. Using a curve will help here. Now my blocks are complete and I am ready to make bumblebees! I will start with a few practice bees. This bee thing could take a while so I am also full bore on the April pants. Today I got the fly in, pockets and stays in, and the front leg seams "Hong Konged."  Hopefully it will be a fairly quick finish tomorrow.


We did our Easter last week when we traveled to visit family so hubby and I will have a quiet day tomorrow. I will bake a ham and cook the asparagus. May the peace of the Lord be with you all tomorrow, whatever your beliefs may be. And let's pray some warm weather arrives around here! A holy and happy Easter and Passover  to all!....Bunny