The Memphis Muslin

 

It's muslin time around here. That means no hair, just a little lipstick and my wooly warm  socks. I am focused on getting the muslin of the Sewing Workshop Memphis Dress completed and above you have a front view. This has really been a lot of fun.  

First of all, this pattern is just a delight. it is so clearly written and illustrated and every dot and notch matches up perfectly and is right where it is supposed to be. No mysteries anywhere.   

I made the decision to sew up this dress EXACTLY as it came from the envelope in a size XS. For my muslin I used a 30 year old 100% cotton percale sheet that I just was tired of and threw in the muslin bin, my excuse to buy new sheets. It is a very high thread count which meant it would not ease well at all but was very similar in weight to the fabric I will be using for the final garment. 

That will be the above, two vintage linen plaids and one contemporary linen/cotton blend that matches the texture and weight of the plaids perfectly.  They are soft and pretty light weight, perfect for my purpose.  All three will be in the Memphis dress. 

My purpose? This will be the third summer we attempt to go on our celebration vacation of our 50th wedding anniversary. This trip is a gift from our children and the trip will include our children, sons in law, and all grand children as well. We will be splitting our time in half at two different islands in the Azores, a place I've always wanted to visit and I got to pick the destination as we are also celebrating my milestone birthday. We are all excited and hopefully some variant will not arrive on the scene and put a stop to things as it has already done before. I really think my Memphis dress will be light, breezy and perfect for some island relaxation. The fabric is so aged and washed  that it has that wonderful soft patina of vintage linen that requires no fuss. It will be light enough to be delightful in the  island breezes. 

I was slumping through my sewing activity a couple of weeks ago in no mood to keep pushing out winter clothing to wear to no destinations as I already had tons in the closet and  it dawned on me I had better start sewing for our vacation. It got me all energized again and this is the start of my wardrobe. Armed with patterns and a lot of Essex linen  I am raring to go. Slump removed!!!

I spent yesterday cutting out and sewing the dress, all pretty easy peasy. It is a flat layout with each piece, other than the sleeves, being cut singly. Once I started sewing and fitting, you can see I made notes on my instructions for the real thing and muslin corrections.  It looks like a bit of origami but all fell into place so easily that it is nothing to fear. This is not a case of "I don't need to read the directions" so don't go there. You HAVE to read and follow these directions but they are easy and perfect. 

Since I wasn't really sure how this would fit me at all I did a tissue tracing of the pattern leaving it in tact for other sizes. I traced the XS. If you look closely at the at the first photo you will see there is enough room for my bust, the shoulders are too wide and the neckline gapes with largesse. I believe I may have to adjust the ease on the sleeve cap as well. I will see how the narrowing of the shoulders affects things first. This is the issue with every pattern I make but this is the smallest size.  When I go to cut the real deal I will slide the shoulders in and pivot out so I don't change the shape of the armscye. 

I have already cut the front neckline larger.  I can now get my head through! It slid on easily.  I have found the armscye a bit tight but it is also quite high. I know lifting the armscye allows for more movement so I am not sure what to do here. I will play with the muslin.  Since the pattern basically falls from the bust, that is it on fitting. Get a good bust and upper chest fit on this and you are done. 

Plain side.

Side with drape. 

Back view. 

This garment can have the drape just fall flat in a triangle sort of look like above or if made in a knit with some weight, it can drape with lovely curves on the side which I tried to emulate here. 

If you look at this pic, you will see a blue strip of fabric pinned to the armhole. All I did was take a strip of selvedge and pin it to the inside of the drape and bring it up to the armscye and pin it there. It made the curves! I may do this to the final version. We will see how my vintage linen reacts to this idea. 

Thanks for bearing with my self judgement and any of your thoughts will be appreciated.  I will be shortening the hem band, It is drowning me as you can tell. It will probably be half that width. I will play with my shoulders and sleeve caps before I cut any thing out. That is not a perspiration stain on the dress above. Cameras sometimes pickup th weirdest shadows. 

The next biggest challenge, which I have mulled over and over,  is how to divide up the fabrics in the various spaces on the dress. Just not sure yet.  Hope you have something you are enjoying and pulling you out of these awful winter doldrums. Think summer!!! It helps.............Bunny

My first evah Wearable Muslin, New Look 6866

And it's even a hand painted wearable muslin!

If you've followed me through the ages, you know I don't believe in wearable muslins. The reason I caved on this pattern is because I wanted to find out how deep the back neckline was, did it show a bra band, and could I play with the design and get some "bump outs" to work. The original pattern is great on it's own. It is New Look 6866. Make sure you don't read that upside down!

It's a summery classic with neckline choices  and deep-ish looking back neckline. My original inspiration was this beauty I found on Pinterest:

I love the look, the "bump outs", the painting and particularly that deep, shaped hem band. Thank my sister for naming them "bump outs". Sounds appropriate to me!  I had some beautiful periwinkle cross dyed linen but I needed to work out the design before cutting into it. I did and will tell you what I figured out from my first wearable muslin. It was a worthwhile experience but a new one for me. I just don't do wearable muslins! 

Fabric:

I wanted something with some body as my linen would be underlined. Dig and dig. Well, if I am going to wear it, and surely just in the garden digging, I might as well use some off white denim I've owned for years.  I  bought yards and yards years ago with intentions of slipcovering the moon, I think, and it has been the gift that keeps on giving. But, oh, my, is it blah. The more I worked with it, the more blah it got. Hmmm,,,,,,,As I was experimenting with the pattern, placing, tucking, etc, I kept looking up and around to see all my painting supplies for another project I was working on. Paint, that's it! If it looks awful, well, who cares? I had a cute stencil for a dandelion puff and I layed some paints down on the dress front pieces  with dry brush techniques to give some color and depth to the dandelions. Then I decided to stencil in the dandelions on top of the colors with royal blue paint. The stencil had no stems so I had to paint them in as well. I was pleased and this was headed in a good direction. 

The denim was prewashed three times and the paint got my usual "make it stick" technique and that worked great. I have washed this dress three times, once in hot water, and the painting hasn't budged. Yay!

Signed my artwork, too!

Construction:

I tried to keep this simple, muslin being and all, but it was denim, and I was going to wear it. I went jeans style, stitching, serging and topstitching all the seams. This dress is rugged. It actually comes out of the wash, like a pair of jeans, with a shake and it totally wearable! 

Above you can see the hem band and I will do a post on how I managed that deep, shaped hem and the bumpouts in a few days. 

The arms and neckline were simply bound with a muslin quilting print turned and topstitched. 

This dress has no zipper and easily slips over my head. I did not use the facings included and simply pressed open the serged seams and catchstitched them down. 

Edited to add that I just did a blogpost on how to alter an A line shape for bumpouts. Here:

Bumpout alteration

In conclusion:

Lots of good take aways from my first ever wearable muslin making. 

   *It IS wearable, not perfectly fitting, but wearable. 

   *I need to raise the armscye to prevent bra show. 

   * I like the bumpouts but will make them a bit more shallow in the "good" version.

   *I LOVE the wide hem band. It is not from the pattern. I added that change. 

   * I will remove some volume from the back only. My SIL and I did some playing around and that    was much better.

   *I will make the next one shorter. I really thought this would be mid calf but it's not. Up it goes! 

   * I love the back neckline. I used to think my back was my best feature and still decent enough to bare on a hot day.  But not anymore..........My arms are my best feature. They have held more babies, comforted many fevers, hugged in wild passion, wrapped around the dying, and stitched probably a million stitches. You judge for yourself but I think they are my best feature. 

Vogue 8630

Right about this time last year I wrote about making a dress for a wedding with this fabric. I had the alligator shoes to match. What I didn't have was the time. At the last minute I caved and bought a little red knit number from TJ Maxx. That worked well but I have still been so wanting to make this same dress. Try again! I think I may make it this time. I am determined and will budget time each day to get it done.

The pattern chosen is really simple and I have seen some nice results on PR. The collar is really lovely, a design that flatters my narrow shoulders and long skinny neck. The dress is a simple sheath with a waistline. I prefer that to deal with my swayback. I will be doing the sleeveless version and like how the collar becomes a bit of a sleeve. The belt? More than likely self fabric. The fabric? Above you see a 100% rayon dress fabric. It's a bit heavier than usually seen but has a lovely drape, The collar will be an matching white linen, a heavy texture to match the rayon. Construction? It calls for a lining. I won't do that. Since rayon can "hang out" and potentially droop on a very humid hot day, I am going to underline it instead. The last wedding I went to, not far from this one, was extremely hot and humid and I think the underlining with Hong Kong seams will work better to support the rayon. I am going to interline with cheap nylon net. WTH.....I read about this some time back. A designer used this to keep dupioni silks from becoming totally wrinkled and the netting goes between the lining and fashion fabric. Again, to hold the shape and prevent wrinkles on a hot summer day. I am anxious to try this technique and feel I have nothing to lose here. Can't wait to report how that goes.

The zipper on this design starts two inches below the neckline and is hidden by the wide collar. Here you can see my beginning muslin. The form is tilting and no side seams are sewn. My sewing plan has me finishing the muslin tomorrow. Just looking at this I am thinking the neckline may be too wide and will show straps. Or do I go strapless? If I had more time I would build in a corset but not this time! The upper back is looking wide, which usually happens. I don't like the simple unsewn slit for a vent and think it looks a bit cheap. I think I will make a more tailored vent instead. We'll see. I also think I will hand pick the zipper, maybe with some beads.  This garment is definitely planned for dry cleaning only. I also think I will need to peg the skirt. Not sure on the length yet. Your vote may help me there.

I also have ordered a hat to go with my outfit and it will work great with this dress as well as with nothing else in my wardrobe. Once I put down my plastic on the hat I was committed to making the dress. So I am focusing on this bigtime. I still have a long queue of projects I want to do including bags and some more linen pieces. Spring has finally arrived here with it hitting the eighties today and yesterday. Yay!  So vacation and it's mandatory after vakay catchup is out of the way. The now dry green yard is calling but this dress has priority. Stay tuned.......Bunny

The felted sweater jacket Vogue 1385

My personal Richard Avedon was not around today. That meant two things. First, I had the day to myself and second, there was no one to take my pics but me. I tried the old backward mirror trick and did not do well. but I have one photo that will give you an idea of how the muslin has worked out. It actually fit rather well  with the issues being in the back. I need to do a swayback adjustment and cut a smaller size for the back  as you can well see in this awful photo taken in my basement with the only full length mirror I own. Please tell me everyone's basement looks like this. 

The front of the jacket fit not too badly . The dress form is my clone. My previous issues with Betzina patterns is in the sleeve shoulder neck area. If I cut the smallest size of her's like I cut everyone else's smallest size and then adjust, well, her patterns are so tight in that area that they are completely unwearable. This size C proves that out as the upper chest area fits quite good on myself. I don't get why. I am very narrow shouldered and this  is her equivalent of a size fourteen, something I have never even come close to in patterns. I have to adjust down those size sixes I get from other pattern companies/designers for my narrow shoulders. This one fit really smoothly in that area (eye roll). But below the black line it is large. The bust is at the apex but the width is too much. So, I will cut the size C in the neck shoulder regions, cut a smaller size for the torso, and I am also going to cut this much shorter, about 8 inches. It looks much better as a short jacket with my proportions. 

                           

Now that the muslin is together I am firming up my other additions to the design. I think I am going to overstitch all the darts with a strip of the felted wool and a triple zigzag stitch to secure it down, all on the outside. The red lines show what I am thinking. Those are all darts. With the fabric being all one color, and no closure, the design really needs some further textural embellishiment and I think this is it. Creating your own look is an ever evolving process and this "strip dart" thing is today's brilliant idea. Tomorrow may be a whole different story. Do you work like that, creating as you go along? I always have a vision but remain totally open to change and my design ideas are ever evolving until a garment is completely finished. 

Isn't this ruffled neckline fabulous? I am also thinking of adding a center back seam to help with the swayback issues and doing the darted strip on the back as well. 

You can really see how large the torso and sleeves are in this pic. I do like those darted sleeve cuffs a lot. I am going to remove a tiny bit of ease from the sleeves but will keep the ruffle for the cuff and I plan on making them a bit shorter, more 3/4 length. 

So that is where we are in the fitting and design process for this garment. 

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

 

And what on earth is this mess above?  Some years back I picked up the perfect light for my sewing room. It was a floor lamp, had three lamps that were adjustable, and was marked "FREE" on someone's curbside. I grabbed it, brought it home, and its been in my sewing room ever since, lighting up my cutting table and photos on demand. 

Today I moved it aside to get a better picture of the garment on my dressform,  No problem. Once done with pictures, I went to move it back and the lamp moved but this busted hunk of concrete stayed behind, making it now unusable. An unplanned trip to town, twenty bucks at KMart, and I am back in business with the same type lamp I just lost. I looked at the OTT lites at Joanns but found they just weren't bright enough compared to these three lamps on a pole with full spectrum bulbs. I am back in business!!!.............Bunny

Back to Sewing with Butterick 5960

Finally I am back to sewing and blogging. It's pretty interesting how intertwined the two are for me. We have had lots of visitors and the holiday has been priority for the past few weeks but I am ready to roar. I am finally excited about my new coat project. It is Katherine Tilton's Butt 5960.

It is rather bath robe-y, isn't it? But that's OK. I wanted something classic, waist defining but roomy and this fits the bill. My version won't be a stunning print like this one but an equally gorgeous wool/cashmere blend in black, ALL BLACK. Yes, much tweeking of the photos will happen so you can see the details as we progress. I have made my muslin and I will share that with you in a moment. I am using this, other than one tiny tweak, straight out of the envelope in the Extra Small size. I love saying that, "extra small size". Pattern land seems to be the only place I get to mouth those words! But an extra small has 46 inch hips and a 42 inch bust, all the better to fit my warm winter clothes beneath. I love the sleeves and they are very comfy.

The area on the upper chest at the join of the front and the side front has a bit of a bubble. I am always narrow there so I will push that over a bit when I sew up the fashion fabric. 

Above you  can see how I caught the fabric up when topstitching on the facing inside. I will be extra careful about that with the wool.

There are some interesting issues with this design but I still love it. First, the collar is having an identity crisis. It doesn't quite know it if is folded back all the way down as in some photos on Butterick or is it more a wrap style. The center front is also the facing and you can see the distinction with it being white muslin and the back, sides and sleeves being pale yellow. This is OOOooold soft sheeting and my wool will definitely work differently but I think I gleaned enough about the fit from this to proceed.

I have narrow, sloping shoulders. Shoulder pads are a given for me in any tailored garment. None are specified on the pattern. It looks pretty clear to me that the model is definitely sporting shoulder pads in her lovely version. The back is cut wide and the armholes low but not crazy low. The other day I wore a tunic to work that did not fit in the armholes of my coat. That won't happen with this coat. I like the cut.

Something odd about the pattern you can see above. The front armhole is way shorter than the back armhole. You can see how the sideseam is toward the front and the shoulder seam is toward the back. This is exaggerated on Miss Dumdum. On me everything hung right and looked OK. I realized this was intentional when the directions said to line up the underarm seam of the sleeve with a square that is set back a fair amount beyond the frontal side seam. Of course I realized this after the sleeve was installed.

Speaking of sleeves, that should be OK too. The sleeve has a two inch fold back cuff. You can see the correct length for me here, two inches beyond the hem fold, perfect. So I can make the sleeve as is and fold it up the two inches. I like that retro type of sleeve.

So I think I am ready to go. I am going to do the lining first. This simple looking pattern really needs you to read through the directions at least twice. Took me three times to get the pockets understood. I will save you some time and tell you that there are neat topstitched slot type pockets on the outside. But there are also big pockets in the lining on the inside, four pockets total. But  that isn't real clear in the pattern till the third reading, at least for me, and I found it very confusing. Anyway, now I get it and don't plan on any issues. Read this pattern if you plan on making it. BTW, there are no reviews yet on PR so I will make sure I get this up on there.

I am going to make and complete the lining first. It hangs separately from the coat. That can be easily changed but I think I will just go with the pattern as is at this point. I will be adding a few tailoring details that are lacking here and will post those as I go along. The fabrics in the very first picture are a cashmere/ wool blend, mostly cashmere but I forget the ratio. Sorry for the overcorrected lintladen pic. The wool  is lovely. The lining is Kasha, a flannel backed heavy satin. It makes a really warm lining. I've used it numerous times and love it. It is the same lining you usually see in fur coats.

And what is that bright colored business? That splashy shiny goody? That I am hoping will be my piping between the coat and the lining. Off white lining, black coat in the style of a bathrobe, gosh, I need something to jazz it up so that's what that fabric is bringing to the party. Hope to have more to share soon.

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

It has been difficult being just too busy to blog and sew but the trade off is quality time with my family who are usually quite distant. I'll take that any day. I did re-discover, as has happened before, that when I don't have my creative outlet, I am not too happy. Just sort of a gray funk sets in. But get me to imagine making piping out of some extremely gaudy polyester and the rainbow sparkles and the sun sits high. I know you all understand.

Hopefully I will have more posting before Christmas so I will save my merry wishes until then. I will have a bit of a sewcation this week for a few days as I will not be seeing family until the second week of January when I have to travel for completion of some dental implant work. I am hoping to finish this coat during that time. It's great to be back!....Bunny

I think she's got it!

A little better, ya think? What a litany of adjustments took place to get here!

First I petited the whole thing. This meant:

• Take a half inch out of upper back at the yoke seam
• Take the same half inch out of upper chest, appx where the notches are on the front armhole. You can see the fold on this muslin.
• Take a half inch out of the sleeve cap.
• Drop down the armscye at the underarm to correspond with the width removed in the bodice. Forget this part and you have one tight armhole!

Next was deal with the stinkin' sleeve and how it attaches to the bodice. There was a big blob of unnecessary fabric in the lower front area of the armscye seam. This was not ease. It was ugly.

• First I took a half inch out of the underarm seam at the top tapering back to the seam at the waistline. 
• That corresponded with folding out a full inch along the center  grain of the sleeve the full length. How did I come up with this figure? I went and measured my grey cashmere coat that I made. The sleeves are very roomy and comfortable and I knew way smaller than this sleeve on 2153. It was almost a 3 inch difference. Between what I could reasonably take out of the top of the underarm seam and the 3 inch difference I compromised at one inch. Now the sleeve head seam and the bodice armscye seam had an equal amount removed. 
• Tried it on at this point and while it was a lot improved that big blob of fabric still existed in the front of the armscye. At this point I decided to just follow instinct. It is not always easy to follow instinct. I always regret not listening to my intuition sooner because for us ladies intuition is always right. Intuition told me to just scoop that nasty blob out. I did not alter the shape of the armhole on the bodice. What I did was scoop out a curve from the underarm seam to the first notch right on the sleeve itself in the front of the sleeve only. Bingo! That did it. Are the Pattern Police coming after me for this? I don't think so but we are all afraid of them when that intuition starts to kick in. Take your sirens and your big sharp scissors and go away you nasty PPs. The Big I (intuition) has won again! 
• And last but not least, whenever you decrease length in a front zippering jacket like this one, make sure you add to the hem as your zipper won't fit otherwise. What a nightmare that would be after all this work!

Thanks, everyone, for all of the great suggestions regarding my headaches. I'm leaning heavily toward an allergy possibility but we'll see what the doc says. Thanks to you wonderful readers I have lots of info to research and confront him with. Thank you again. You are priceless!

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

Well, lo and behold, is that not the new issue of Threads? The one mailed to me personally in my own special manila envelope from Newtown, Connecticut itself? Sure is! Seems a hint I sent in was deemed print worthy and I am very flattered. Now I didn't get the B I G prize like the charming Kristine of Just Keep Sewing did not long ago but hey, it's recognition and I'll take it. Any questions on my hint, just let me know. A bit of expected editing was done and I am not sure it is as clear as I originally had it but that's OK. I'm here if you have any questions. What fun!

Coming up next, how I am dealing with the lining situation in a pattern that doesn't require one. ...Bunny

Simp 2153, Muslin # 1

Well, I guess this nightmare picture says it all! How do you like the hat? I thought it was  great over compensation for a day of no makeup and bad hair. I picked it up in a compulsive moment last week in Lake Placid. I like it, wondered where I would wear it, and now I know - Muslin Display! Back to 2153.....

This pic gives you a better idea of the issues. The ease on this jacket  is 40 1/2 inches at the bust.  I plan for this to be a spring- fall jacket, going the most over a tee or shirt and jeans.It also meets with a zip at center front so that is why I have it a bit separated. I have only been close to a 40 1/2 inch bust in my ninth month of pregnancy so this has to be narrowed. But the really big issue is the horrendous sleeve. It is way too low and way too wide being almost 18 inches wide at the bicep. You combine that with a voluminous shiny fabric and we are talking nightmare on Elm Street. FWIW, this is sewn as out of the envelope in the smallest size, a 6.

 

That right shoulder dip rears it's ugly head with every garment, doesn't it? That's an easy fix with a shoulder pad. Here you can see all the width above the waist. I know I have to have extra ease in a jacket but this could be way  better than this. Sorry about the bunched up tee on my butt.  So now what do I do? Your suggestions and positive critique are very welcome. I'm thinking deal with that stinkin' sleeve first. How about first I take in under the arm as well as narrow up the sleeve width to match? Then I will raise the armscye as well. I'll also petite the upper chest and back and sleeve head area. After Muslin #2with all the petiting it will then be time for narrowing the shoulders and upper bodice. I have to also decide in which order to do all of this, hmmm,,,,,,,,

I've given a lot of thought to the lining process in this garment. I am going to flatline  it and do facings. This pattern required that I make a facing for the back neck as there is none provided. Instead the collar eats up the back bodice neckline. I've never liked that technique. I also may do some sort of binding on the facing as well. More to come on the lining process. 

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

If I am looking a bit worse for wear lately I have been dealing with the return of near daily migraines the likes of which I haven't seen in years. I will be seeing the Dr. about all this and may just need a prescription. Hopefully there is something new and improved since I took migraine meds like Imitrex and Relpax years ago.  I thought I was all through with this issue but apparently something is flipping the migraine trigger.  I do know one thing. If I can get myself in the Zone, as in creative endeavors where I just lose track of time, it greatly improves the situation. So I sew on........................Bunny

The Sure Fit Design Muslins

Or should it be titled, " How does she dare show these pics?"  Well I do dare and I will. I am pleased with my results.  I am going to show and comment on my second muslin first. Is it the best muslin? The crowd is hushed with anticipation......

First I took my measurements sort of snuggish on the first go around. I liked my muslin but I also like my clothing with a bit more ease than these had. The next day I took my measurements again. We are talking full hip here and I repeated this several times. It was a half inch larger than my measurements the day before. I started this second muslin and here are the results. This fabric sucks. It is a poly microfiber that ravels like the dickens and slides like the finest silk velvet. I just don't like it but hey, it's a muslin.

Side hangs straight, lots of fullness in front and in the legs. These, for the sake of the muslin, are a straight cut pair of pants. See that dip I have in my front waist?

Love the crotch line on this pattern. Both pants look great with that. Again you can see these legs are full. Now, remember, these are the ones cut with the half inch larger full butt pattern. What a difference that half inch makes as you will see. Nasty fabric!

Back, not too bad. You can see my unevenly shaped hip. I usually have to raise the  right side seam a quarter inch but did not as I wanted to see how the muslin played out. The left side hangs better.  Ok, That's it for muslin number two.

Muslin Number One was made with a half inch smaller full hip measurement, right below where the watermark La Sewista is in the above pic. I found it a teensy, and I do mean teensy, bit snug around my upper thighs and hips. I let it out 1/8th inch in that area on the side seams and here are the results. Now this fabric is a nice quality poly gabardine, way better than that microfiber yuck. Not so sure about the color, though.

 

Side seams nice and straight, no crazy dip or fullness in the front or legs, hmmmm....could muslin number one with it's adjusted side seam be better than muslin number two?

Backside, waaaayyyy better. You see a pull on the left high hip from the pinned zipper area. It is pinned shut, no zip yet. I do think once a waistband is on this one that higher hip will pull the right side out of whack so what I will do is leave that area of the waistband unsewn and tweakable.  But I think I've got it with this one, Muslin Number one with a 1/8th inch wider full hip upper thigh area. As the currently infamous Paula Deen would say,  "Wutchall think?"......Bunny

Dressform, Part Three and Getting There!

What you see here is the completed cover but totally unpadded. That will happen shortly but I thought I would share a few construction points first.

The cover is princess seamed, something I had to makeup myself on Vogue's muslin pattern. I would suggest using a princess seamed  sheath dress pattern as an easier way to start this project. Hindsight it  twenty twenty, you know!

The question of how I did this alone has been brought up. I didn't. Hubby was indispensable, particularly in helping to find my waist. When the bodice was complete I sewed the zipper in the center back seam. It extended a good nine inches beyond the bodice waist. I would deal with that later. Then I put on a black elastic cord tied around my waist and wore it while I finished up the skirt section. When the skirt was done, still with the bodice and elastic on, I had DH mark where the black cord was every two inches with a red frixion pen. This would come out once ironed. He got it spot on, bless his heart. You can see his wonderful work in the next photo.  That's the elastic cord on the right and the zipper bottom is hiding underneath.

Once my waistline was established I pressed under the waistline seam allowance 5/8ths of an inch all around the skirt section.

Then the fold of the skirt waistband was matched up with his marks. I topstitched the skirt in place. It was a perfect fit so I knew he got the waistband right! Yahoo! After topstitching I also zigzagged the same seamline for a bit of insurance. This is ravelly fabric and the zipper and waistline got extra protection. 

Then I found the end zipper stop and marked the seamline. I stitched the skirt closed from there down. Now I could install the final leg of the zipper.
  Double stick Wonder Tape was really helpful here. Now the zipper was complete and I could give it a fitting on the form. That is what you see in the first two pictures.

I have wide hips and they cut back in at my thighs. My dress form wasn't long enough to accommodate this change in shape and I felt it was important. Let's say if I wanted to make a pencil skirt, this shape would matter. Plus I had to figure out how to end the bottom of the cover. It couldn't just hang there. I wanted a longer dress form. DH came up with the idea of some heavy corrugated cardboard and duct tape. He helped me wrap a ring of the cardboard around the bottom of the form to get the right length. This would be impossible without two people. Once I got it on, paying particular attention that the bottom edge was parallel to the floor, I cut darts in the cardboard ring. I cut slits almost to the bottom edge and starting duct taping everything tight as could be. Now what you see is pretty nasty but it will be filled out with batting so I am not worried. And, I've got my longer length. Now I can run a drawstring in the bottom of the form and pull it up snug and tie it off once it is all padded.

 Cross your fingers for the next phase.....Bunny