Friday, April 19, 2013

Muslin take... uh, i think i lost count

Sound familiar Tini?  Made me think of your 6th time's a charm le sigh

So anyhow, i am obsessed!  and frustrated! I REALLY want to learn to sew.  I want to wear nothing but my own clothes all the time.  As i mentioned the other day i think of Roisin from dolly clacket and Beccie from Sew reto rose and i just have all these visions and ideas and motivations and determinations and then it comes down to it and bwerpbwerpbwerpbweeeerrrr..... :P
I just dont get it!
What's so wonderful about handsewing your own things is that you can make something that will actually fit for once, right?  But that's where my problems come in.

I know i have problems with my shape when it comes to ready to wear clothes.  i always have.  i'm "fluffy" now, but 13 kg ago, i still had those same problems only a few sizes down.
I'm learning through helpful online friends like Tini and  Jennifer, and through reading up here and there and through an online Craftsy class Sew the perfect fit taught by  Linda Maynard that the things that have always driven me crazy about the fitting of my clothes are actual namedproblems and they have solutions :D  That feels so empowering :D
However, between learning what that adjustment is called and trying to apply its solution to a pattern...well, those are two totally different things! And that feels so FRUSTRATING :/

Here are a few of the things i deal with every time i buy clothes :

  • Gaping at the front arm scye
1365778564336see that little gape near my armpit?
  • Pulling across my bust
1365778587033Good God!
  • Sloppy looking shoulders
  • Too large neck openings
Sans titrethough this is only a half-sided paper toile and not yet made into the muslin toile, you can see taht the neck and shoulder area is just unattractive and will not fit well.  this was my size ten muslin.

  • Bagginess at the mid to lower back
Sans titrethis is even after pinching an inch of it out
  • gaping waistlines
Sans titreagain, hard to see on this half sided paper version but you can  imagine how this will be too large at my waist
  • too short in the crotch pants
  • uncomfortableness in the thighs
  • too long pants

GEEZ!  No wonder i have trouble finding clothes i like in ready to wear.  no wonder most all of my clothes are knits!  and no wonder i'm having such trouble making my own muslin!

this is a pic of a huge swath of super cheap white fabric i bought on mega sale last year just os i could make guilt-free muslins :D i knew id need a ton of muslin (that's the name of a type of fabric with which muslins are often made which is why "toiles" are so often called muslins) fitting in the future if i wanted to sew successfully.  so insightful and especially so virtuous of me, right? ;)Sans titre


I have been working on the bodice portion of myMacaron by Colette (pattern 1001) muslin for about a month now in all, well, if you dont count attempt one and the long hiatus in between.


Since i havent gotten past the bodice :/ we'll just talk about my fit issues up top for now.
if i have something large enough for my bust that i buy in a store, then i'll swim in it at the waist, shoulders, and neck. i never buy dresses because of this.  i never buy cotton button ups because of this.  i dont think i have tops in my closet that are not made out of knits.  This helps alot with that problem.
But that's not the solution.

My actual measurements are 39/31/39 with an upper bust measurement (just under armpits) of 36 inches.
The macaron size chart is here

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Bust 33 34 35 36 37 38½ 40 42 44 46
Waist 25 26 27 28 29 30½ 32 34 36 38
Hip 35 36 37 38 39 40½ 42 44 46 48

For my first macaron muslin i went for the size ten knowing that i'm in the process of losing weight.
I went ahead and did an FBA, as i do know i need to do that (from my coat sal failure).
Sans titreworking of FBA
Sans titreCompleted FBA darted up into 3-d on paper pattern
The top was super baggy and unattractive.
I dont think i have pics of the muslin itself unfortunately.  i could dig the stupid thing out and take pics but...i dont want to lol.
I did this muslin back in october as i had envisioned wearing this little number in a black raw silk with a black lace yoke (yes i do have all the fabric :/ ) to my high school reunion.  After modelling it for my knit friends the week before i was supposed to go to USA and a little over a week before said reunion, i realized there was no way i could get it done by then roflol.
So the idea sat on the back burner for a while.

I have been waiting very impatiently for spring and i decided id bring it on with another attempt at macaron.
This time i decided to make for a second muslin a size 8 muslin with no FBA and see where to go from there.  I only did the bodice this time.
This one just didnt work at all.  Still baggy in lots of places but obviously tight in boobs.

This is about when i called on tini, who suggested going with my high bust measurements.  Well, that would have me making a 6!! WHAT!?  No way i can squeeze my waist in that let alond my butt and boobs!
This is also when i started watching the sew the perfect fit class.
The class reiterated some things i laready know about fit from knitting but introduced me to more advanced fitting issues :
I knew that my big boobs needed an FBA, for example, but i didnt know that my arm scye gaping could be fixed with the full bust adjustment as well.
I knew, obviously, that breasts are three dimensional and that clothes are two dimensional unless you introduce more fabric in that area (think short row (horizontal bust dart) shaping and vertical dart shaping in knitting to add to the circumerence and length of your bust area without adding circumference elsewhere.)
Whereas i totally get that on a knit sweater and can fairly confidently add in my own shaping on any sweater pattern i undertake, I didnt know how to figure out where to add that on a sewing pattern.
I knew that the upper bust measurement is a better place to start for my knitting garments but i didnt believe it for the sewn garments, using woven, unstretchy fabric.

So....with all this info floating around in my mind, i just went for it  : MUSLIN NUMBER 3 in SIZE 6 8^O!
How ridiculous i thought!
Well, surprise surprise, the neck and shoulders fit! The sloppy shoulders and too large neckline problems listed above have been taken care of  :D
1365778587033 by rebeccawip
 Though as suspected, i couldnt fit into it elsewhere lol!
1365778538255

Next up, slash that puppy open so i can squeeze  into it lol.
 Sans titre
I had hoped my friend Marie Pascale would be able to help me with this but i hadnt gotten my muslin far enough along when i saw her.
So the following day, after a "coup de blues" where i whined and teared up and did a woe-is-me i have no friends around this stupied po-dunk hole in the ground place and if i had my sister around id have finished this ages ago act, my dh stoicly volunteered to operate the scissors for me.
Sans titrehe pinned
Sans titreand pinned some more
Sans titreand cut and pinned a little more

and then...after all that hard work...now i had to transfer those changes to the paper pattern
Sans titreno im not trying to make an origami goose
Sans titreor a paper airplane :/

 and we're still not done!
now we have to make muslin NUMBER 4 :/
Sans titregrrrrr!!!!!  too much of an fba now
Sans titrenot perfect but i can live with it
Sans titrei ripped out seams and shortened and widened my lower vertical bust dart.  i had noticed my waist band didnt want to fit together nicely before this mod - must have misfigured something somehow somewhere.  much better after fixing this dart, both on sewing in waistband and on fit.  still not perfect but again, i think i can live with this.


What do you guys think?  Is this muslin bodice good enough ?  is there something you would fix?
now im off to do the skirt...Aaaaaaaaaaagh!!!!!!!!!! i sure hope it's not as difficult as making the bodice changes!!!!!
wish me luck!

7 comments:

Tini said...

Looks a lot better but can you take pictures without the shirt underneath or are you planning to wear a shirt under the final dress?

btw. I also have fitting issues, if that eases your mind (just posted on my blog!)

Tini said...

Plus, you def. need to make the dart shorter. It should not end on the nipples, but that's an easy fix

Rebecca said...

off to read about it ! as for bust dart, i did fix that but looking at this, i think i dont like it - ineed to lengthen on bodice part instead of on yoke part. my bust being large and heavy, i dont need that visual dragging the bust line down even farther!

Rebecca said...

what i mean is i'm starting over lol!

Tini said...

Nope, I don't think so. I meant the waist dart. I have drawn something. If you PM me your email over at ravelry, I'm going to mail you the picture!

Margaret said...

Rebecca,
You know about Pattern Review, yes? sewing.patternreview.com is the URL. They have tons and tons of sewers (sewists? seamstresses? LOL) there and they would be happy to help you solve fitting woes, too. I have fitting issues, too. ((hugs))

Rebecca said...

margaret, i recently joined pattern review but am so busy on rav that i havent really gotten into PR or the community there. i think i need to but then... ahhhhh!!! another time suck lol ;)