Fitting - Done!

Thank you ladies for your excellent advice! I had used a 5/8" seam allowance, so I figured instead of re-cutting a larger skirt, I'd just serge the seams and remove the basting (clever girl!), effectively adding about 3 inches in circumference. Here's the result in very poor lighting.

Here's another shot in softer but still poor lighting. No more off-kilter seams and I can breathe...always a plus. Pay no mind to the ragged side - that's where I pinned the zipper opening.

And just a bit of swayback which I can fix when I attach the skirt to the bodice by pulling it up a bit at that seam.

Here it is from the side. This particular print would NOT be good to seam like this, but I'm thinking that with careful placement, my wavy fabric will be fine.

So with fitting out of the way, I was able to get the lining all cut out and sewn up halfway. Since I serged the skirt seams, I'll have to take in a bit near the top to get the bodice to match up with it's non-serged seams. I just pinned these to the dress form to see how it looks. I love that color!

And I started on the boning - woohoo! It's quite exciting to use the zipper foot and cut the end of the boning to round it off a little. I saw that Sandra Betzina had a tip in her recent book to burn the end of it with a match to soften the sharp edges. Interesting...but how do you keep from setting your dress on fire? Just checking to see if you're still awake!

So I'm well on my way. Maybe I can get the real fabric ready for cutting out soon, though that'll take lots of playing with first...