The Shrinkage

Anyone who's a fan of the Seinfeld TV series will recognize this post title and what it referenced.  And while my issue is not exactly the same as George Costanza's, I am a little miffed at how much shrinkage I'm dealing with.

Last night, I made final adjustments to my All American Girl pattern pieces based on my muslin fitting, which included:

...adding a bust dart at the armhole to remove a large gap...

...removing excess fabric for a better fit in the waist...

...and at the lower back seam.

Also, the pattern originally called for a 7-inch zipper.  This would be fine if the dress were still loose fitting, but I will now need a longer zipper given the the adjustments I am making.  In fact, I had to be cut out of the muslin once the adjustments were noted.  I think my best choice would be an invisible zipper because I plan to construct the dress with one thread color (trying to keep it easy-breezy), but I don't want the zipper threads to be obvious with the alternating stripes.

Here is my dress front pattern piece with all of the added adjustments from the muslin fitting.  Similar adjustments were made to the back pattern piece, too.

...with tapered hemline, which will need a little lengthening.

After making these fitting tweaks, I was so anxious to cut into the fashion fabric.  Instead, I contained my enthusiam and serged the cut ends of each length of fabric, laudered them, and pressed them out this morning.  I then measured each piece to see if I had any shrinkage - and how much.

Wow!!  I was amazed at how much I lost on each piece.

 

This piece was 1/2 yard...

 

...and I lost 1-inch on it.



The red fabric, which was 1 1/2 yards, lost 1-inch as well.



The white fabric - which also was 1 1/2 yards - lost 2 inches.

The shrinkage on my white fabric seems like a lot, and I'm hoping this is all it will do.  I'd hate to have additional loss after the dress has been constructed.

I have one other concern, and that's how the stripes will look once the bust dart is sewn.  I have a few ideas in mind, but I need to make some tests.  Anyway, I'll keep you updated on my progess.  Thanks for taking the time to read, and please leave comments.  I love hearing what your thoughts are on my projects.

Be blessed!

Aisha