Rockabilly circle skirt dress - pt2

I've been hard at work on my new dress today. I really wanted to get a move on and get it finished for our holiday trip which is coming up in a few days.

As discussed in the previous post, I felt the bodice cups needed padding and some support, so I looked through my stash to see if I had anything that could be used. I found a pair of foam shoulder pads I bougth ages ago. They were not very thick, so could easily be remodelled into bra cups.

I made a small dart in each pad, and stitched them shut. To reduce bulk, I trimmed out some of the fold on the inside, and whip stitched everything flat.

 The pads now mirrored the bust shape in the bodice and was ready to be attached.

First, I tacked the point of the bust dart, to the point of the pad, so the pad would not shift around inside the bra cup. I shaped the bodice smoothly over the pads, pinned them loosely in place and carefully catch stitched the pads to the inside of the cups, making sure not to catch the outside fabric.

I love catch stitching, it looks so couture!

I am really happy with how the bust improved by doing this. I also realized that I will not be able to wear a bra with this dress, because of the low cut back. So integrated cups are gold! The dress looks, and feel, so much better.

I also put in some boning in the side seams. I used plain plastic boning, 1 cm wide. I just stitched it to the seam allowance using a three-step zig-zig, and handtacked it down to the underlining. This simple step will hopefully stop the bodice from sagging and folding at the sides, keeping a smooth shape.

Lastly, I got the skirt back sorted to take up the excess at the waist. I basically just opened up the back seam, trimmed off about an inch on both edges, and sewed the back seam together again. I decided to continue my "couture detailing" with a hand picked zipper. I haven't done those before, but it looks wonderful! Almost impossible to spot :)

The much improved bust,
properly period, bullet silhouette!

All remaining now, is stitching the bodice lining to the waist, and hemming!