It's not as easy as it looks, is it?

Unfortunately things got a bit bleak at the weekend.

There we were, ploughing away, trying our wee practice dress. We cut it out of cotton, cut the lining, everything going swimmingly. Within merely an afternoon, we cut out the whole thing and put the entire bodice together, and the skirt too.

We were feeling pretty proud of ourselves in fact, in the way you only can when you feel like you're steaming ahead. And it seems to be only when you're feeling that way that you suddenly hit a brick wall.

So we had the top and the skirt section ready. The skirt was pretty much perfect for our purposes, and seeing it over the petticoat was quite exciting (even though, because we'd used such thin material for the practice, it meant the skirt turning a peculiar pink colour).

Then I tried to put the top on and we were somewhat deflated. It fits - but it doesn't fit the way it should, you see. There were weird sticky out bits on those beloved princess seams. There were elements puckering and pooking which were simply unacceptable. We were confused - especially given the practice top was exactly the same size as the lining-only practice we'd done.

So. What went wrong? Our theory is that pressing the cheaper cotton we got for the practice whacked it somewhat out of shape. It also seems that the facings of the dress don't quite fit in satisfactorily.

And what the hell are we going to do now? Well after bodice-gate (as it shall henceforth be known) we had a rather long, sometimes calm and sometimes panicked summit where many suggestions were thrown around. For my mum, this was not really helped by the fact that, still wearing the skirt, I was enjoying having a spin around to see it fly out rather than concentrating.

There's some stuff we're considering.

1. Back to the drawing board and look for another pattern

2. Make a practice bodice in the actual silk, to remove the doubt of the cheaper cotton

3. Get rid of the stupid facings (which will require moving the zip to the back of the dress. This would actually, having considered it, be a bonus in terms of easily getting in and out of it).

4. Er...

Anyway mum text me last night saying she had a solution. What it is, I don't yet know... but I'm sure we can work a way around this.