There's nothing like a perfect fitting bodice for a sewing high

This weekend my brother and his future bride came to visit. We had scheduled a last fitting of her wedding dress and of course family time. We had a great time together as always but the best (at least for me) was trying on the dress.

I was apprehensive since this is the first time that I sew for someone other than my boys and husband, and it is a WEDDING DRESS. So...I carefully pin her into the bodice...and we both jumped for joy like silly girls! It fits perfectly, it shimmers and gives her a bridal glow...

So what did I do to obtain this perfect fit? On the last muslin fitting I corrected the back bodice for slight swayback by trimming half an inch in the center and blending into the side seam (Burda WOF has a tutorial on this), I raised the armholes by an inch at the side seam and tapered the addition towards the notches using my French curve(Threads has a great article on how to deal with bodice fitting) and finally I fitted the princess seams as an S-dart which Threads describes in Issue 107 The S-dart Advantage. In my case for the S-darts I fitted the muslin and then made sure my curves were smooth when I transferred the changes to the pattern.

In this pattern(New Look6723 view D) the bodice lining goes up to the edges. Because my lining (cotton batiste) does not match the color of the silk I understitched around the neckline and the armhole to make sure I would not get a sliver of lining peaking through. In the picture you can see the understitching aroung the armhole.

I hope to finish the dress this week and ship it to her next week. She'll be glad to have it and I'll be glad she does.