After finishing the cut & spread for the Butterick 6956 halter bodice, the next order of business was to figure out how make the Butterick bodice fit on top of the Vogue Couturier 990 skirt. You can't see it very well on this pattern envelope, but the front waistline slopes down to a point at center front.
I considered my options for awhile (which really means just making stuff up) before deciding to transpose the Vogue front bodice pattern pieces over the Butterick front bodice pattern.
Using the waistlines as a guide,
I redrew the bottom edge, sloping it to a point at center front.
Additionally, the Butterick halter bodice has a center front seam. As a halter top, I like the contrast of the center front seam to the multiple bust & waist darts. But I don't think it translates that well to a cocktail dress, so I removed the center front seam & altered my pattern layout to place the CF on a fold for cutting out.
Here are a couple of views of the front bodice piece with new waistline & darts sewn.
I started adding the boning to the front seams but 2 things happened. #1- Miss Burton pitched a fit over the boning, effectively halting all forward progress. She'd take a few stitches & then get stuck. I feel like this calls for a feed dog adjustment, but I'll probably just use my other machine to sew the bones in because I don't have a whole lot of time in my schedule for coaxing Miss Burton along.
#2- Something good came out Miss Burton's fit though. I was sewing the bones into the front piece, but I think I need to sew them into the underlining instead. That way, I can sew front piece to the underlining with wrong sides facing in, thereby encasing the raw edges & all the structural pieces like the bones & the bra cups on the inside.
Glass half full.
