As good as my word, I sewed up a muslin for my birthday dress (next week, birthday fans!), which will be the draped jersey dress from the Feb 2010 La Mia Boutique magazine, #6:
I sewed up the muslin in a viscose jersey, chosen for its very similar draping to silk jersey (with the bridesmaids’ dresses also in silk jersey, I bought TONS of this!), but it is pretty thin and see-through so it’s really only ever going to be good for muslins. After sewing a size 44 in the turtleneck and finding it quite roomy, I decided to go with a 44 here, too, even though I should be a 46 according to their size charts. This is sewn up exactly as per their paper pattern, with no alterations.
Here’s the front, side, and back views of the muslin:
Overall not too bad, fit-wise, but there were a few places that I think I can really improve on the design (and one or two spots where I can improve my order of construction, so I’ll update that to reflect it!).
Things to change:
- That upper bodice overlay is dowdy and way too square – it should form a nice V shape with a narrower skirt overlap, too.
- Way too long in the hem – cut off about 4 inches so it’s above the knee
- Sleeves too long – shorten by 2 inches (though strangely, that high sleeve cap seems okay)
- Shoulder too long – take off one inch to pull the sleeve seam up to my actual shoulder
- Underarm pulls away when I raise my arms – I have no idea how to fix this. Anyone? The armscye is nice and high, and I notice other teeshirts do this for me, so maybe it’s not a big deal? I compared this armscye shape to BurdaStyle’s Lydia which fits me well, and there isn’t much difference there at all…
- Back skirt is rather clingy – line it!
The skirt front drape pulls the line out a bit in the side view, too, but I’m totally fine with that. It’s a forgiving style and it just means the skirt won’t be so clingy there.
To alter the front to fix the square overlay and make it more V-shaped, I wanted to take width away along the centre front (the jersey is plenty stretchy enough to take it!). So on my muslin I first sewed away 1/2 inch from the CF but it wasn’t quite enough, so I upped it to 1” from the CF fold (thereby taking 2” of fabric out overall), and I think the overall line is much better now. So I’ve made the change on pattern pieces #7 (inner upper front) and #11 (inner front waistband) as the rest can just be gathered tighter to fit the changes.
Here’s the altered front (the CF seaming won’t be there in the final version):
So with this and my gardening seed order arriving, I’m up for a busy weekend (the wheelhouse is the BEST for seed propagation, lemme tell you! )!