An Almost Very Bad M7948 Tiered Dress Hack

Today I'll be sharing how not all tutorials are created equal and how you shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet especially about drafting tiered skirts.

I don't need to be the one to tell you that tiers are in. Tiered skirts, dresses and even tiered sleeves! Tiers are everywhere and let's just say this tiered project definitely caused other types of tears.

I was really wanted an easy, breezy tiered dress for Summer. Nothing complicated. Just one I can chuck on over the head and be on my way. Easy enough right? Now I do have patterns that I have used before with tiers but I didn't really want to mess around with those. I wanted shorter tiers too so I opted to research the worldwide web and find what I needed to know.

I happened across this post that seemed super blunt. Just like I like it. The math was simple and direct. Take the waist measurement of the bodice I'm using and apply the following math to get your 3 tiers (refer to my terrible chicken scratch below; I swear when I write about sewing my handwriting turns into that of a doctor).

Easy enough right? I did it in no time at all, cut out my pattern and off to sew I went. I should note that the bodice pattern I used was my tried and tested McCalls pattern M7948. However I did adjust the back and front necklines so that it was a pull-over dress, no longer needing the button closure on the back. This also meant I could finish my neckline with bias rather than that fiddly facing. Oh and the fabric is from Joann (it's so soft and beautiful and comes in the prettiest of colours; mine is in Celadon). Anywho, sorry, totally off on another tangent. Back to the problem. Once I finished putting the bodice together I went to start on the tiers and what did I find? These tiers are NOT long enough in the waist measurements. I went back to the online tutorial thinking, thinking maybe I was meant to cut 2 or 3 of each tier. But nope it just said cut 1. Totally not right at all!

So I quickly took out my leftover fabric and cut 1 more of each tier. I couldn't cut anymore cos that's all I had left. Then proceeded to make the tiers. There wasn't a lot to "gather" because it was still not as wide as it should be in width. But I kept going to see how it would turn out. The result. I actually loved it. What would I change next time? Probably cutting out one more piece of each tier so have it more gathered. And I also went back and pushed my bias tape under and stitched. I liked the look of the bias showing on the outside but because I used a cotton gauze I wanted the neckline more sturdy so I made that adjustment.

Overall, even though i'm happy with the result, I learnt my lesson. Don't trust everything you read on the internet. Like I say in all my posts, I'm by no means a professional. I'm self taught. This means I learn a lot as I go and I teach myself from various sources. So always be weary of what you read online because people could also be just like me and sharing what worked for them which might not be the right way of doing it where it applies to all.

Enjoy the pics. I swear Spring will come soon. But for now I'll just enjoy taking pics in the snow.