Hotline: Welcome to the sewing hotline, how can I help you?
Me: Good morning and I am so happy to have finally reached you. I made a dress and it does not fit. Again. What shall I do, please, I need help? HEEEELP!
Hotline: Take a deep breath and evaluate the situation. Is there an accident? Is someone hurt? Can you see open seams or are entrails of the sewing machine spilling on the table?
Me: No, but it’s the dress. It is actively misbehaving. It’s sliding down my shoulders and the waist is wobbling around. I have done so much for it. I have reattached the skirt part to the body and found the exact spot to get this low waist fit from the last time I sewed it. But now other problems surface. I am so sad and angry. Please I need help.
Hotline: This is a case of domestic sewing abuse (silently mumbling something like „But I am not sure who is abusing whom… poor dress“) there is a fixed procedure we have to go through. First get away from the dress.
Me:….??!???
Hotline: Please take off the dress and step away.
Me: Ok. I have put it on the table….. But it is looking hatefully at me.
Hotline: Please describe in short words the problem.
Me: This dress… I wanted to have a dress for Christmas. And I found this book and all the dresses looked so nice, but it is in Netherlands, which I don’t understand and so I improvised and …
Hotline: I understood the word ‚improvised‘. Mostly this indicates that the dress and pattern are ok, but the sewist thought she is cleverer than the designer. You know that changing parts of a design will lead to a different overall fit?
Me: Arrrrghhhhhh. I am not stupid! But what shall I do? I have thick arms and a near to nothing bustline. I always need to widen the sleeves and than have the problem that the width at the bust is to big. I was clever this time and measured the paper pattern before cutting the fabric. And as the sleeves were super small, I have chosen a bigger size. Now the sleeves fit wonderfully but the shoulders are to wide and the bust and waist too.
Hotline: Ok, thank you that is helping. So, have you tried to take the sides in?
Me: Yes. This was my first idea. I tried it three times. At first, I simply made another seam parallel to the existing seams along the side. That led to a smaller silhouette but also to big folds under the armpits and a strange bulge at the hip. Not better! The next two times I tried to take the dress in only at the bust area which again did not fit. Now the neckline seemed even wider than before. And the folds under the armpit are still there.
Hotline: Is it possible that you have cut out the wrong size? I think you should have cut out the body and the skirt two sizes smaller but using the bigger size for the armhole height and sleeve width. So, what you must do now is unpick the whole dress and ….
Me: No way!
Click
Here the transcript ends abruptly, and I strongly advise you against calling this hotline.
I silently sewed the neckline and the hem of this dress and will donate the pattern to a friend.
Disclaimer: no dresses were hurt during the sewing process. The finished dress will be loved and taken care of. It is the Eden dress from La Maison Victor. I made it in a modified size 44. If you want to read more about my sewing process, hop to the first part of this post.
This is an addendum for
Neckline and heart shaped waffle recipe 💕🌈
The neckline of the white dress is 92 cm wide and my fabric very stretchy. To get the right measurements for the neckband I used this formula:
92 x 0,7 = 64,4 cm
As I need two seems for the neckband, I added 1,6 cm, means I cut out two rectangles each 33 cm wide and 5 cm high. I sewed them into a ring which I folded in half and ironed it. So that I can distribute it evenly while stretched out I marked every quarter of the neckband with pins. I then pinned it onto the neckline while stretched. First I sewed it on with a zig-zag stitch and checked the fit which is ok for me (I am not a neckband perfectionist :-DDD ) and then I top stitched it with a straight stitch. I am not sure if this description helps you? I guess the most important thing is to get the width correct (not too wide) but as you could read above, I am far from accomplished in sewing something that fits (perfectly) :-D
And if you need a bit of sweetness, this is the waffle recipe:
You need a non sticking waffle iron for baking powder waffles (not the one for yeast waffles which is madeof cast iron). I use one which is distributed into 5 hearts, but every other form works fine :-D
The recipe I mostly use is this one:
3 eggs room temperature
125 g warm butter
125 g sugar
200 g flour
50 g starch
1 tsp baking powder
125 ml full fat milk
¼ tsp salt
Vanilla and citrus peel (or flavor)
Cream the butter and sugar together. Mix the eggs into the mixture (cream every single egg before adding the next one). Add salt and flavors. Mix and sift the flour and baking powder and add it alternating with the milk to the egg/butter/sugar mixture. Don’t over mix the flour, just incorporate.
Bake the waffles according to the waffle iron and let them cool separately (they will get soggy if they lay on one another). Serve with cream and hot cherries (cooking preserved cherries with vanilla pudding mix and rum or rum flavor) and vanilla ice-cream.
While writing the recipe… I think I must fetch my waffle iron and bake some myself.
Thank you Silvia for being such an awesome hotline operator and for the wonderful photos.
Thank you 
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