The New York Pattern 1585 Project- part 1

 Remember in my previous post where I said I wanted to make a dress inspired by these two vintage patterns and this vintage dress? This week I did just that. Thursday I received the pattern I used as my base for the project- New York 1585. The goal of this project is to make the New York pattern dress with the skirt as is but with a front bodice that looks more like a cross between the vintage dress shown on the right and the bodice of the blouse on the pattern on the left. 

To get things started the first thing I did was trace out the front bodice pattern piece. The original lines are marked in black and the changes I made are marked in red. On this pattern I decided to drop the waistline 1/2" and enlarge the waist 1". I also lowered the neckline and lowered and sharpened the 'point'.

Here is the first mock up. It's horrible!

As you can see there is too much bulk all through the torso which needs to come out. Also by lowering the neckline it created a gap at the neckline that needs to be contoured. 

I forgot to take a picture of the pattern after I made those changes but here is mock up number two with the alterations. It's almost there but still not right! What I did here was tighten the neckline and remove some of the belly area bulk by moving the bust 'point' starting point up 6" above center front waist. This tightened up the lower bodice perfectly but the chevron point is a bit too big. I also extended the shoulder seam lines to make short kimono type sleeves.

The goal is to make the front bodice look as much like this as possible:

As you can see the bust 'point' is much smaller and V shaped on the dress pictured above. To get that result I raised my center front starting line even higher and sharpened the point. Here is the finished pattern:

And here is mock up number three. This one is a winner!

I liked the fit and look of this version so I went ahead and added on the skirt and trim along the neckline, pockets and sleeves. If you noticed the fabric looks lighter then the picture of the last mock up it's because I decided I liked the lighter shade of the fabric of the reverse side better and used that instead. I made a few more small changes after this picture and added a button and more decoration to the dress. I'll post pictures if the final results in my next post. 

Happy weekend ya'll!