Progress on the Prada inspired dress

Super short post, just wanted to show you the progress I made on my Prada inspired dress muslin. Or I guess my Prada inspired top.  ;)  As the 27 pleats I have to sew is a little overwhelming, I started slow with the collar.  It looks like I packed the instructions, so it took me a little bit to figure out how the collar would lay, so I cut one side right side up and the other upside down.  I interfaced it with silk organza.

 I decided to use bias tape to finish the edges of the collar (I'll probably also use it to finish the sleeves). Three out of four corners turned out well, but you can see the slightly wonky one below.  :(

Once the collar was done, I started on the sleeve.  I am interlining the whole top with the orange voile that I was going to originally use as the main fabric.  The orange voile turned out to be way too flimsy.  I didn't baste the interlining to the outer fabric, I was just extremely careful when I folded and pinned. I started out by ironing each individual pleat, but then realized that it would be best to iron them all together, so that I could ensure they were evenly spaced.

 To open up the pleats, I cut strips of cardstock slightly thinner than one inch. Since the cardstock was only 11 inches tall, I taped two pieces together.  (I might have to tape a third piece to some for the body of the top.)  I then tapered one edge so that it would slide easier into the pleat. 

You can see what a cheap ironing board I am currently stuck using.  It's super annoying. 

Once I got all five cardstock pieces inserted, I then moved the pleats around until they were evenly spaced.  They're not perfect by any means, but they're good enough for government work.

 Once I was finished ironing, I basted the interlining to the outer fabric, to make sure the pleats stayed flat.  I then trimmed the excess pleating at the top (as I was lazy in my drafting, and didn't figure out the exact shape at the top to not necessitate trimming).  As I had never used this sleeve before, I wanted to see how it fit, so I went ahead and sewed it together using french seams.  The fit is pretty spot on.  You can see in the picture below that I still need to trim the bottom of the sleeve to even it up.  I want to wait until it's on the top, so that I can decide on length.

Anyway,  that's it for today.  Hopefully I can make more progress tomorrow in between playing with the baby and taking the dog to get her exit paperwork from the vet, which then on Tuesday I have to take to the airport for certifying or something.  I'd like to wear this on my last day of work, and I would also like to make one more Bronte top for my plane ride.  I think it would make my sweat pants look a little more chique.  Anyway, until next time, happy sewing!