Today I cut out the lining pieces for the bodice, and realized I need both an underlining AND and lining if I want the dress to be more streamlined. So I used the initial bodice lining pieces that I cut as an underlining for the sheer pieces of the bodice:

What I ended up with was this, a fully lined, raw-edged piece. This is, of course, not the final product:

I repeated this process with the back lining pieces, and then it was finally time to actually start putting the bodice together. The shoulder seams were the only things that needed to be attached at this point:

Then I headed back to the muslin to cut the second lining pieces (the actual lining, if you will). Made quick work of that, and put all those pieces together the same way the bodice went together. (Side note that I’d like to state for the record that I didn’t need the instructions for any of this – I’m so well versed in how pattern pieces go together now that I can see it, like a puzzle, I guess.)

I attached the lining and then basted the bottom layers to keep them together. The “final” product (for it’s nowhere near done yet, as it needs to be finished off, and have the skirt attached):

I MIGHT undo this and layer the bodice pieces the other way as there’s a really nice flower detail hidden underneath the overlapping piece on this bodice. If I do that, however, I need to remember to do it to all the dresses!

Thus far, this pattern and this fabric have been surprisingly easy to work with. Now it’s just a matter of figuring out which skirt is going on this dress (I think I have the perfect option), and attaching it. I won’t be able to fit the dresses until the week before the wedding, and that’s when I’ll be finishing them up with the zippers and making sure everything is neat and there are no threads hanging from the dress.

I managed to do the bodice for one of these dresses in about an hour or so today, so I can easily hammer out the other two today if I want to (probably not, as I don’t want to make silly mistakes getting bored with it). The next post will likely be all about the skirt pieces, since there’s no reason to chronicle making the other two bodices, as the process will be exactly the same.