Alteration - Indian dress Part 3

Following yesterday's fitting, I removed a total of 8 cm at the front princess seams. That meant trimming 2cm off of each piece that get joined at the princess seams at front (4 pieces total if one counts the joined 2 halves of the front piece of the bodice as 2 different pieces). I tapered the trimming at the waist to rejoin the original fabric (not remove anything at the waist).

 

Front panel of the bodice, folded in half. I trimmed one side and mirrored the cut on the other side. I did the same for the side panels that join the front panel.

After sewing the princess seams, I did another fitting. 

Bodice fitting #2. Getting there. 

As I thought, the seams at the sides need to be adjusted as well at the armpits. The waist is perfect. I ended up having to reduce one side seam by another 2 cm and the other by 1 cm (meaning deepening the seam allowance by 1 cm on one side and 0.5 cm on the other, starting with the deepest seam allowance at the arm pit and tapering to rejoin the original line of stitching a few cm above the waist.

Now the bodice looks good. There is just finishing work to do around the arm holes (not sure my level of skills will allow me to put that back as neat as it was before), and top stitching to do of the princess seams. These need to be top stitched before I rejoin the skirt to the bodice. To do all that finishing work, I need to get some yellow thread that matches the fabric. So far, I worked with an off-white thread I had on hand as all the stitching I did so far was hidden.

I need to think about what I want to do with the skirt. I might make it an A-line, to further match the concept of Indian dress. But I also need to try ruffling the skirt at the waist instead of cutting it in an A line. It's a long skirt and the fabric is flowy.