First bite of the Macaron

I got started on my Macaron! I have completed my muslin and I am working on the final bits of the dress. But first things first, upgrading! Before making my muslin, I have upgraded a few bits of the pattern, hooray for apple shapes!

- I kept a 18 for the shoulders
- chest to a 20
- waist to a 22
- hips to a 24

I have also done a FBA and lengthened the sleeves around 1 1/2 inch. It was pretty straight forward. The pattern is gorgeous. It does not have too many pieces, and they fit together pretty well! (at least when you do not do differential upgrading...). After the first fit (muslin), I have changed a few things.

The different side pieces were not completely corresponding so I had to correct that on the sides (Yeay for apple shapes!)

Back was good, and the sleeves too

The darts were not long enough, making the fabric stick out a little bit.

The middle front was gaping a bit, so I added a dart (it'll be on the fold for the fashion fabric)

The front piece of the skirt was too small, and I had to add 6cm in the middle (but it was a muslin mistake, and I had to remove it later, grrr)

Anyway, after all those little changes, I got started on my fashion fabrics. First thing was to cut the black fabric (skirt and bodice), the lace, and the beige (to form the contrasting fabric). These two last ones were handstitched together, and then stay-stitched.

Both sleeves, one seen from the inside, one from the outside.

You can see the yellow hand-stitches.

I really like the way you see through the lace. I was afraid at first that it would look a bit cheap, but I don't think it does... After that, I have started assembling  the bodice pieces. It starts looking like something nice ;)

What do you think?