Biased.

I seem to have had a bit of a disaster.

I’ve been making Butterick 4975, a pretty drape-fronted bias cut dress.

Here it is from the front.
Apart from the fact that it’s not centred on the stand, with a little imagination, you might believe that this would come out okay. The drape at the front needs sewing into place, the bodice needs lining, and the whole thing could benefit from a good steaming, but perhaps it doesn’t look all that bad.

And then you look at it from the side.

I’ve never seen anybody with a spine quite that shape, have you?

There are several problems going on here:

1. The front drape isn’t sewn in, so the side seam is falling towards the back. Okay, that can be corrected by adding the front drape. But…
2. The whole dress is smaller than the measurements stated on the pattern. So once the drape’s sewn in, the entire dress will be much too small on the hips. This may be down to inaccurate cutting on my part, or the fabric not having as much stretch as it really needs. (Maybe both.)
3. As well as the zip not lying flat because the dress is too small to drape over the hips properly, it’s also not lying flat because I’ve managed to stretch out the bias of the fabric whilst sewing it in. Oops.
4. Even if I were to sew in the drape and fix the zip, I’m still not entirely convinced that the gathering at the front is going to be flattering. It’s very poofy.