Finished Project: Floral Tiramisu


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Pattern: Tiramisu by Cake Patterns
Fabric: Jersey from Metro Textiles in NYC
Size: this round, a 30D for the bodice

Finally, a finished garment!  Seriously, it’s been a month since I posted something?  Yuck!  I blame a) my schedule and Chris’ not matching up well and b) the weather being crappy when there’s an opportunity for him to photograph my garments.  I have at least two other projects that have been waiting for a month+ to be photographed, too!  According to the poll all of you lovely readers were kind enough to take, you like pattern reviews and finished projects on this lil’ blog, so let’s not mess with a good thing, hmm?

After heeding everyone’s advice (thank you!), I cut out a 30D for the bodice on Tiramisu Deux.  It made total sense to cut that size out; it looked like it equated the amount of fabric I removed from under the bust on my first Tira.


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I think it worked out much better this time, although it seems to me that the waistband piece should come up higher underneath my bust a la an empire waist style (dude, I look like I have virtually no chest in all of these pics).  The funniest thing is that when I went to do the gathers and tried to match the notches of the bodice pieces to the waistband piece, it was apparent that the gathers weren’t necessary since it was making the bodice a smaller size than the waistband.  Hah!  One less step for me, which was good, since I was having a “stupid sewing” day and had to resew literally every seam at least twice – I kept making stupid mistakes.  Also, since I didn’t shorten the bodice pieces like I did the last go-round (aka hack the extra length of the bodice/neckband off), I needed to shorten the neckband by a significant amount – roughly an inch or so – to get the neckband piece to lie flat around the back of the neck.  There was some crazy floppage back there beforehand.


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On the positive side, this dress got me out of my sewing funk.  I think for the past three weeks or so, everything I picked up to start sewing hasn’t really been jiving with me.  I didn’t really want to force the issue, so this past weekend I uncovered some fabric I totally forgot I bought last spring in New York, and it clicked in my head that this fabric would make a perfect Tira dress.  Problem solved!  Now I’ve got my “sewjo” back (pun definitely intended) and can’t wait to tackle some projects that I started but haven’t finished yet.

I’ll probably make this at least one more time…maybe even cut a different bodice size.  Possible a B or C instead?  For a knit, this pattern is designed with way too much ease and I think the fit could be even better.

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6 Comments

  1. June 12, 2013 / 2:32 pm

    It is very pretty. You look great in it.

  2. June 12, 2013 / 4:19 pm

    I'm so glad you were able to get out of your 'sewing funk'. Finding the perfect fabric for a pattern always helps. I love the bold black and white print on this dress.

  3. June 12, 2013 / 9:10 pm

    this dress is completely not engineered for a non-busty gal despite the infinite pattern sizing! i have such mixed feelings about this pattern that i have no desire to try any of the other offerings. your dress turned out lovely though, such a perfect fabric choice!

    • June 12, 2013 / 9:48 pm

      I think you're right about the non-busty-ness! Us small gals need non-gaping options too though. I feel the same about the pattern…even though I wear my first Tira all the time, I really don't think I'll be trying any other patterns because of all of the fitting problems I had with this "customize your size" dress.

  4. June 12, 2013 / 11:08 pm

    This looks great, love the print! 🙂

    Just a note on ease: if you'd like it to fit closer, then run in the side seams. I have found it can be taken in quite a bit this way without distorting the style.

    Ease is a personal preference, and when a pattern is calibrated with too little ease it's harder to tweak than if it has zero ease (like this one).

  5. June 15, 2013 / 5:00 am

    This turned out great, but I'm totally with you about the pattern and us less-endowed folks. I just finished my Tira and I had bodice tribulations too… I cut an A and still took more than an inch of the bottom of the bodice pieces. I guess I'm still waiting for the line of patterns drafted for non-petite A cup ladies!

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