A corporate solution

My Turquoise Quartet wasn’t quite finished when I thought it was. Things weren’t quite right – some obviously so, and I pointed them out in my original post, others only becoming noticeable with wear.

The original “two piece dress” came out well, even if it makes me look like a school teacher, but actually I quite like it. 🙂 It’s corporate wear. 😁

No issues with the skirt – it’s an A-line with a lowered waist, enough room everywhere and fits over the Christmas gluttony too. 😮 That’s a win! I think that will get a lot of wear, and the colour goes with many things.

The top fits well too, but two things could be improved: the necktie is a bit too short – or may be my crêpe is a little too heavy for it; and and the lining pulls up the bottom edges slightly. Only slightly but I see it (and I’m probably the only one who does, but it matters).

So I decided to fix it straight away and have it well and truly “finished” rather than “umm… done but can’t wear it”. 😁

Obviously, no material left to cut a new necktie, so I’m extending the existing one by putting a section in the back centre seam. It wasn’t supposed to have a seam at back centre, but I was running out of material already then.

Ah, much better! Now it actually stays tied. 😉

For the lining pulling up a little, there is a simple solution – a standard solution in fact, so I should have thought of it before! 😤 The lining should have had some extra room for movement…

This is easily fixed in this particular pattern: it has a bolero shaped panel at the front – piece 118 below, fitting into 117.

The seam between 117 and 118 matches up exactly with the horizontal seam between 119 and 120, so all have to do is open that seam and add a strip of material to add room. The strip is cut straight for the back section and curved for the front, just like the curve in the pattern pieces.