barfing sarah giraffe dress

One of my childhood best friends, Sarah, is a bitter (single) lady. Whenever she sees a loved up couple, whether it's in person or on tv, she rolls her eyes and remarks "BARF!" It's hilarious and I love her for it. She's also one of those tall, long limbed people so we often joke that if she ever becomes pregnant she's more likely to give birth to a lanky giraffe than a baby. Needless to say, when I saw this adorable fabric covered in loved up giraffes I knew I had to make a dress in Sarah's honour. 

After the storming success of my gingerbread man Christmas dress where I finally managed to frankenstein a bodice together to fit my upper back and shoulders, I felt confident in making a second one in non seasonal fabric. I even thought I'd add sleeves! However, I hadn't realised that would essentially mean drafting a sleeve as my armhole no longer resembled either pattern I started with.

I discovered that my armhole is weird. I know that the back armhole is meant to be slightly longer than the front to accommodate shoulder blades but mine is significantly longer, by at least an inch I think. I would be more specific but most of this dress was constructed back in February and I'm struggling to make sense of the notes I made at the time.

Needless to say, this stumped me. After at least 7 different toiles *groan* and eventually settling on a style with a slight gather at the top (more forgiving to draft than a smooth, set in sleeve) I discovered that the most successful version involved a massive forward shoulder adjustment. This involved vertically slashing my sleeve pattern at both front and back notches, removing 3/4 inch of width from the front and adding it to the back, keeping the overall sleeve width the same. My sleeve pattern looked very odd, but it seemed to work.

However when it came to the final sleeves with my beloved giraffe fabric it just was not comfortable. To say I was grumpy about it was an understatement. I HAD DONE SO MANY FLIPPING TOILES. My final fabric is slightly thicker than my toile fabric which made a difference, but ultimately I think underestimated just how differently armholes are drafted for sleeves. Mine hadn't been altered enough.

I had already clipped the curves of the armhole by this point so I didn't have enough wiggle room in the seam allowance to adjust fit either. The skirt and zip were also attached and finished so I couldn't just make the bodice sleeveless using my preferred construction method without removing both. Many swear words were uttered and the dress got shoved aside for a couple of months while I happily sewed stretchy jersey dresses which all fit beautifully (more on those in another blog post soon.)

 "Ugh, they're so in love and happy. Get a room, giraffes."

Eventually, after a couple of months, I got fed up with seeing the dress hanging on dressform Doris and made some bias binding to finish the armholes. I had to tweak the shape to make it sleeveless again which was annoying, but ultimately less annoying than having an unfinished dress lying around. The armholes still don't feel 100% comfortable, but they're wearable. I'm done with this dress and its armholes.

I feel embarrassed to admit that I've only worn this dress a couple of times since finishing it, mostly due to feelings of armhole rage. It's a shame really because it is a lovely, well fitting dress otherwise. Sometimes I need a bit of space after finishing a project if things have gone wrong. Now I can wear it happily.

I think enough time has even passed to allow me to return to this bodice block soon! I got my Aunty, who used to make wedding dresses, to have a look at the armhole and sleeve and I think I know what I need to do to make them fit better next time (famous last words, haha.) One day, I will conquer sleeves!