I am currently taking my first ever Craftsy class, and I’m pretty excited about it.  For those of you who don’t know what Craftsy is, it is an online community where you can take video classes to learn new techniques, and create projects.

I debated about taking the Sew Retro Perfect Bombshell Dress class for quite a while, but finally decided to give it a try when I found out that my friend Sarah was also taking the class.

I signed up for the class a couple months ago, but wanted to get a few other clothing projects under my belt before I attempted to make something this structured.  And I’m really glad that I did.  Starting out learning on the easy to follow and understand Colette Patterns has helped me to learn some techniques that have been very important in this class so far.

The dress in the class is based on the Burda Style Bustier Dress with Draped Detail.

It’s a beautiful dress, but with my body shape, I would rather not have a skirt that has draping at the hip.  The last thing I need is to draw attention to my widest part.  So that means that I am doing one of the other options for the dress.  I am still making the bustier bodice, but I will be lengthening the bodice and making it into a top.

I am also planning to make a coordinating skirt, which is also a Burda Style Pattern. The Linda Skirt is a multi-panel 3/4 circle skirt, which will be a great compliment to the top.

This skirt and top combination is actually one of the options you can do for the class.  For this project, I’m hoping to actually end up with a longer fitted bodice and a high waisted skirt, which can be worn together, or as their own separate pieces.

Over the weekend, I stopped down at Let’s Sew in Evansville, to get some yardage to finish off a quilt top, so while I was there I looked around and found some amazing fabrics to make my dress out of.  Because the top is so structured, I needed a medium weight cotton, which is basically a quilting cotton, so something of similar body.  I was so excited when I went into the poplin room and found some amazing Japanese Cottons.  I ended up picking out a herringbone style print for the bodice, with a coordinating orange broadcloth for the lining, and a beautiful novelty print fabric for the skirt, which I am absolutely in love with.

You’ll notice I placed a penny on that last photo to give you a rough idea of the size of the prints.  They are simply amazing, so I’m itching to start construction of the actual clothes.

I got my pattern downloaded, printed, put together, and cut out in about an hour, but the process of making this muslin was much different than my previous projects.  This pattern has no seam allowances, which means that you have to thread trace all of your pieces.  It’s not really a difficult process but it can be a bit time consuming.

While my first muslin fit perfectly for making the dress, I need to add a good 4 inches to the length and then adjust the width at the hemline to accommodate my hips.

I’m just glad that the bust fit right the first time.  I have a horrible fear of bust adjustments.  Of course, I’m currently dreading the adjustments I do need to make.

See more about this project on Threadbias.