Fly Zipper with Facing

I've never tried a fly zipper with a facing rather than the traditional waistband. Somehow I couldn't wrap my head around how the top of the zipper gets caught so you don't lose the pull.

Over the weekend, I sewed two samples following Kay Y's tutorial. I got very confused at a couple of points, specifically how the facing gets attached to the fly extension, and also how the facing gets sewn to the waist. I finally figured it out, but after I was done I wasn't too happy with the result. I'm not sure if it's my fabric - I tried it with corduroy and with my cotton velvet - my sewing skill, or maybe just the lack of pressing.

I'm going to spend time today trying to adapt Sandra Betzina's easy fly zipper method for facings.

Wish me luck! and if I'm happy I'll post a tutorial.

Doppelganger - Part Trois

Me-Front

DG-Front

I think I'm finally happy with her.

She's still a little larger than I am through the hips, but she's just a tad smaller in the upper chest. And I think I got the shoulder slope right.

Me-Back

DG-Back

But it definitely took more work than I had hoped.

After doing a LOT of research on the web over the weekend, I decided that truly drastic surgery was needed.

Yesterday, while I was out and about -even though gas has gotten a lot cheaper, I still group my errands just on general principle- I bought an electric carving knife for the purpose. I'd been using an old serrated bread knife, and it just wasn't up to the task. At least it was cheap due to holiday sales!

Front Surgery

Back Surgery

You can see I ended up cutting away beaucoup foam.

I took the cut-off breasts, cut them down to fit my bra, and positioned the filled bra much closer to the top of the form than the original would ever have permitted.

I gave her more of an hourglass figure by slicing the sides above the waist into a gentle curve.

I gave her a flat fanny alteration as well - getting toward the end of the process, I realized she had a much bigger tushy than I. I think she still has more booty than I ever will see again, but it's close enough ... and I prefer a looser fit there anyway.

The final thing I adjusted was the shoulder slope. This one scared me, quite frankly - I was sure I would ruin what had already turned into $150 investment.

I used the shoulder slope drawing I had Nick do for me when the form first arrived.

The purple lines are my shoulders. Yes I have funny bumps right at my shoulder points which cause me fitting fits and are my primary reason for wanting a true doppelganger dress form! The red lines are the forms shoulders. I drew this to have at least a guesstimate of how much to dig/curve in the shoulder area.

Here's the form after the shoulder surgery, up against my slope drawing. It's not perfect, but definitely WAY closer than ANYTHING I've ever had in terms of a dress form.

I don't think she'll be a complete substitute for fitting on me, but I think she'll be great for an initial tissue fit, and probably a certain amount of work-in-progress fitting.

I hope it's a good enough match to try some pattern draping.

I'm done futzing with her for a while. I'm more than ready to move on to other projects, and in any case, it'll take actually working with her as a fitting tool to see if I need to refine it any more.