Ripping out some of that dress

I’m not happy with how the pink dress fits. The bodice is a little loose, and I think I left seam allowance at the bottom edge and then didn’t use it, because the waist is too low, and the skirt is longer than planned. So, I’ll be removing the skirt, cutting the bound edge off the underarm of the bodice fronts, and rebinding and eyeleting those edges to fix the fit. Then I’ll bind the bottom edge of the bodice and pin it up before reattaching the skirt to the folded edge (right now it’s attached to a raw edge, and I’m concerned about the integrity of the fabric).

I’m trying to decide if I should’ve put the trim on before the skirt as well, to hide the ends. This leads me to some confusion about whether these are properly called guards. Guards, when you look at Florentine dress, are along the edges of the neck. I’ve been told it’s so they can be replaced easily when they get tattered. That sounds like they’re the edge binding. Since on this Milanese dress the lines of contrast color are a bit in from the edges, maybe they don’t qualify as removable guards, just as a way to hide the seams from the bound edges.

I’m waiting for a copy of Patterns of Fashion to show up on my doorstep so I can explore this some more.

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