Playing with Pleats: complete

 Remember this from a while back? Well I managed to finish it before Christmas, but with our crappy weather making lighting conditions difficult it's taken me until now to photograph it. 

I  decided on boning the bodice as I knew it would give it the extra support it needed in holding it up.
I used polyester boning which I ironed flat as it was curling round from the way it was packaged. I found the boning made the bodice look shapeless so I remedied this by putting the bodice back on to the stand and pining the boning into the contours of the mannequin so it would have more of a silhouette.

Previously I stated I would like to pair the bodice with slim fitting trouser but as you may have already guessed I haven't got round to making them. As It's always nice to see garments actually worn, I paired the bodice with a black skirt I already had.

 (excuse the grey shoes, I used them to go with a dress I was photographing and didn't bother changing them.)

This is how it looked tucked into the skirt.

I prefer the bodice worn over the skirt and with the black tie around it as it helps to clinch in my waist and give me some definition.
 I didn't expect the bodice to look as nice as it did. It was only an experiment to see how the pleating would work, so the pattern I drafted is a size bigger than I am. I like it so much that I would wear it, but first I would take in around bust area and on the sides.

Now to a little round up.
These are some of the things that I ask myself after making a pattern and I thought it would be good to share them on the blog to act as a reference

Would I make this again?
In one word. yes.

Would I do anything different?
 I would use satin covered boning. Use more equally sized pieces of material to do the gartering with and possibly shorten the length.

What materials were used?
White crepe backed satin for the based (a little bit on the cheap and nasty side) and chiffon from John Lewis to do the gathered panels, and open ended zip to fasten.

 For the lining, I used white polyester lining and the crepe backed sating for the facing. I chose to both line and face the bodice to achieve a more professional finish. This was achieved by stitching the lining to the zip and the hem of the garment with right sides facing then turning it through and attached the facing to the neck line and hand stitched the facing down. more on this technique can be found on Chie's website Vivat Veritas.

Would I use these materials again?
The chiffon yes, but I would consider a better quality satin, perhaps something that has a bit more weight to it. I would change the lining and facing to cotton or cotton sateen as I think this works better against the skin and helps the bodice to stay up.

Is the pattern versatile?
I think so, it could be easily lengthened or shortened. A skirt could be attached with ease to make it in to a dress and the pattern could be altered further to make a band around the mid section.