Fitting

Ideally you'd have at least two fittings for a costume: one when you get the pieces cut out and basted together, to adjust the seams, and again when it's almost finished, to tweak the fit and to get the hem at the correct level. This wasn't possible in this case since it was a rush order, but we managed to squeak in one fitting at the basting stage.

At this fitting, I fixed the skirt's waistband length, pinned its hem, put the vest pieces on her pinned together and inside out (so the pins wouldn't stick her) and pinned the side and back seams into the proper curves to fit her, and pinned the vest to the correct length on her.

Fit for this client was complicated by the fact that she was 26 weeks pregnant. The con was two weeks away, but at this stage the body changes shape and size very quickly, so something fitted correctly now might be completely wrong in two weeks' time. So I cut the waistline of the skirt bigger, altered it not to use a zipper (what a zipper is doing in an historical pattern, I don't know...), allowed for a lot of overlap in the edges of the skirt opening, and sewed Velcro to the waistband so it could be fixed at just about any width. The vest was less of a problem, since it's not cut to fit too low over the abdomen.

I allowed for a lot of fabric in the hems and seams so the costume could be easily altered to fit her after she has her baby and her body returns to a somewhat normal shape. I also allowed for extra room in the vest to accomodate her changing shape over the next couple of weeks. Additionally, the waleless corduroy has a decent amount of stretch to it, so it should fit her comfortably even when it's snug.