Ruffletastic or frilly trainwreck? Muslin of the Anna Sui shirt (Vogue 2850)

Greeting tree dwelling octopuses! Tonight’s post is brought to you by an old Ikea curtain; torn down and forgotten when newer, thicker curtains came to live with us. Granted new life when I decided to take Vogue 2850 out for a test drive. The muslin has been hanging in my sewing room for weeks as I’m not really sure what I think of the style. I have to say, though, that after snapping some pictures I’m warming to it… it’s just so…frilly…

The February dress…McCalls 5094. The dress of a thousand muslins.

Good day cats and kittens. It’s currently 54 degrees in my house (give or take 20 degrees) and Lucy the stenchhound is earning her keep as a foot warmer. This isn’t stopping me from my dreams of sun and sundresses and flip flops and all other good things. Which brings us to the February dress, a cute dress that’s been a bear to fit. Mostly because of all the tweaks I added. Here’s the muslin… (note the elegant footwear)

Simplicity 2601. An FBA on a gathered bust, doing the pivot and slide and is checkiness a word?

Hello kittens! I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this… but a week or two ago I bought a lovely (funky? kindergarten child-like?) piece of green 21-wale corduroy with cherries printed all over it. I plan to make it into another hybrid Jenny. So of course I need a shirt to go with this skirt, which, lets face it, will probably be a fall 2011 garment for me, knowing my sewing speed. Nevertheless, I utilized my normal unproductive shopping technique of envisioning what fabric I wanted for the shirt, then driving to every fabric store in the metro area to find it. Turns out, red gingham silk charmeuse does not exist. But! I did find some mystery rayon at our local scary fabric warehouse of suitable red checkiness to be worn with a cherry-cord skirt! Wow!

So. The pattern. I really, REALLY want to get makin’ my Pendrell which has been nicely cut up and waiting for the wax paper treatment for a few weeks! And as much as I love the pattern, AND think it would be adorable in mystery-rayon-with-red-checks, I wanted a shirt with a little more structure. Enter Simplicity 2601, which has been stewing, cut but unloved, in its envelope since July. I actually cut this pattern while I was on my honeymoon. Yes, chickadees, I brought patterns to cut while I was on my honeymoon. That’s how I roll. In my defense, Mr. Bug ran a MARATHON during our honeymoon! Here’s a line drawing of the version I’m doing. I’m telling you, I have never seen a midriff band that I didn’t love.

Finally… Parfait completed, modeled, left in a heap in the sewing room…

Not really a heap. Just going to for the shock factor. Good news for Snug Bug readers… I treated myself to a tripod that works… although I think my previous hair clip tripod was ingenious. For whatever reason (akin, I’m sure, to the phenomena that makes computers work when tech support shows up) a lot of the lighting and focus problems that I was having before went away with the new tripod! I still took most of the photos in bad inside light, onaccounta the sun setting at 2:30 p.m. or thereabouts. Hopefully, my photos will be less frightening over the coming months… But enough about that, here’s my finished Parfait. Shockingly, I like the dress and the fabric. More on that (and pictures!) after the jump.

The Colette Parfait, a muslin.

Hey! Remember this post? The one with the giant orange and pink striped turtleneck and a yet-to-be made dress to go over it by my recent pattern-designer-obsession? A few of you got it right – I’m making the Colette Parfait, a cute little dress with straps, buttons and what should be a flattering fitted midriff piece. Here’s my first muslin (sans-skirt – what’s the point until I get the bodice to fit?)

Lady Grey. How to adjust a super-gaping lapel!

I thought I'd do a post on how I went about adjusting the ginormous gap in the lapel of my Lady Grey. This method isn't from any specific book, just me, trying to get things to fit! I'm sure there are other (likely better) methods out there.

I make this alteration after completing the Full Bust Adjustment (FBA). See my previous post on this here.

Here's a before and (bad, night) after shot, showing what the gaping neckline adjustment will do. Note the drapey lapel in the shot on the left. All smooth and well-fitted on the right!

[A too-droopy lapel!]

Lady Grey. Muslin #2. The Full Bust Adjustment and another muslin.

I've finished the Full Bust Adjustment (FBA) on my Lady Grey for the sewalong and made another muslin! While I'm happy with the fit of the top, now I've got a bit of problem with the bottom. For step by step photos on how I did my FBA and dealt with the gaping lapel, read on. But first, updated photos!

Lady Grey. Muslin 2. Tissue fitting 1. Well, 1.5.

I am probably going to need to devise some sort of Dewey decimal-system type of organization for posts regarding the Lady Grey!! Here's a mid-muslin #2 pattern alteration update.

[A size 12-14-18 tissue fitting hybrid. In need of tissue]

How to butcher a pattern, or why it's important to start out with the correct bust size. Lady Grey, take one.

In the interest of public safety, I'm making myself post these awful photos of my latest butchery. The Lady Grey coat.

[chose wrong size, tried to fix the lazy way, created odd pyramid-effect]

Finally finished! The fitted shirt (Butterick 5333)

Well, this seems almost like a let-down after all the muslins, but the fitted shirt from Butterick 5333 is finally complete! And I love it!!

Putting together the shirt was a little bit of a pain. The most painful part was probably the fabric, which is a silk/wool blend and very prone to unraveling and leaving little bits everywhere. Also, it was very itchy. The pattern called for the bodice and midriff pieces to be self-lined, which I did, but when I sewed it together it was (A) ITCHY!! (B) pretty bulky and (C) full of ripples.

I ripped out the lining and recut using lining fabric. The final is much nicer, although I wish I had cut a lining piece for the skirt part of the shirt, because I like things to be finished and it ended up being sort of strange having to finish things just on one piece. I ended up using bias tape to cover the seam allowances and the part of the zipper tape that showed on the bottom half of the skirt. I also used hem lace to hem it up.

The lining and the bias tape

It was sort of a pain to get the lining in correctly - I always have a problem tacking down the lining a little short so that the outside of the shirt is a bit baggy. Also, the silk/wool fabric was a bit stretchy from the way it was woven, so the lining was smaller than the shirt after all of my ripping and resewing. I had a hard time getting everything to line up by the zipper and it looks sloppier than I'd like...

Ooooo... that lining is a mess!!

Also, since I used a different colored lining and it was hard to understitch very far, I was worried about the yellow peaking out. I don't think it does, but am still toying with making some nice little bias bindings from the silk/wool fabric for the arms and neck - just to be sure!

I really, really love the shirt and will probably use this pattern again! Here it is with a few different looks!

 

Up next... well, it's actually already sewn, but McCall's 5811, a full-circle skirt, done up in the same silk/wool fabric - I'm wearing it on the left photo, but need to put on the waistband, let it hang for a few days (perhaps a few months, seeing how stretchy this fabric is!) and hem it. I'm thinking of moving on to the suit jacket from Butterick 5147 if I can gather my strength enough to cut out the pattern pieces!!

And just to recap from the very first post on this shirt... I started with the 'look' from the fall Louis Vuitton line, picked out the Butterick pattern and ended up here....

I'm happy!! I also reviewed on patternreview.com!

Part IV of a series of unflattering photos - in which we approach dart crazytown...

The fourth (ahem, FINAL!!) muslin is done for Butterick 5333. It was a rough ride getting this one done. Unreasonably confident in my new ability to swing darts around, I thought removing the extra width around the neck would be a no-brainer. Unfortunately, I was the no-brainer, and the whole project came skidding to an ugly stop, my bodice pattern sitting on the kitchen table, looking a little bit like a pinwheel, while I sat in the living room, dejectedly thumbing through back issues of Threads.

Much to my surprise, fate was with me and the September issue had exactly what I was looking for. Kenneth King's instructions on how to fit sleeveless garments! Can you believe it??

So here we are...

Adjusting the gaping arm

The first adjustment I did was the one to remove the extra fabric around the arm on the front bodice. My initial thought was that I could just cut out a wedge and swing the pattern to add the wedge to either the horizontal or vertical dart. I tried to do this a few different ways (I'll skip the sad pictorial...) and just could not find a way to make it work.

Step 1 - Kenneth King, in the September issue of Threads, suggests adding a new vertical dart when dealing with this type of adjustment. I've shown below the wedge I cut out outlined in yellow. I then cut from the bottom hem up to the point of the wedge I had cut out. This is shown in blue - the pattern pieces are already slightly rotated which makes it look a little misleading. But blue lines are actually showing a single, straight cut, not an additional wedge shape.

step 1

Step 2 - After the cuts were made, I swung the new wedge shut and filled in the new vertical dart with wax paper. The new dart is shown marked with a sharpie marker.

step 2

Neckline and sleeve angle adjustment

The next adjustment was made to the neckline to remove gaping issues there as well as to swing the sleeves up a bit so they don't feel like they're falling off my shoulders. I started by drawing a dart on the neckline about 1" wide - shown below in pink.

removing the excess fabric from the neckline

Next, I folded out the dart, smoothed the pattern and taped everything down. This shortened the neckline and swung the arm inward.

taping down the dart I've folded out

Straighten the angles on the skirt

I also did a little adjustment to the seams on the skirt piece. I'd ended up rounding the seams quite a bit while adding on width over the last few muslins and I didn't like the way it was hanging. I just went and straightened out the seams - shown below in pink - on the side seams as well as the center back seam.

So how does it look?

I'm much, much happier with the fit. There's still a bit of wrinkling above the bust, but I can deal with it. I'm happy that the gaping is gone. Also, I think once I sew this up in my actual fabric and press the darts correctly it will look a lot better!

Here's the view from the side. I've traced over the three darts in pink to show them off. It's a little funky looking, but it works!

One final change I made was to re-draw the inner vertical dart - the original one that points to the bust apex - as a curved dart. You can see in the photo above how pointy the straight darts looked! It's not super easy to see, but in the photo above, the side where I've traced over the darts has been resewn with a curved dart which really improved the look.

Below I've shown how I redrew the dart.The original straight dart seam is above the new curved seam.

the new curved dart

And with this I pronounce muslin making DONE!! I will make a few final adjustments - shaving off about .5" wedge on the front and back bodice in the underarm area, but I'm leaving the bedsheets behind and cutting into my silk blend next!

Here's a review of the series of unflattering photos
Part I - How I did an FBA on a shirt with a midriff and a skirt
Part II - Please sir, may I have another muslin?
Part III - A game of whack-a-mole
Part IV - in which we approach dart crazytown...

A series of unflattering photos part III - a game of whack-a-mole...

That's right, I said it. Whack-a-mole. Still working away on Butterick 5333. I got the ease worked out in the midriff area (although I'm liking the silouette a little more when it was a little smaller!) but now there's something wonky going on with the upper bodice. Like, way, WAY too much fabric!! Here are the comparison shots starting from the beginning to present sad state (also, muslin #3 pictures were taken at night in my bedroom... horrible lighting!)

Again, not a lot of visible difference! You can see, a little, from the photo how much better the bust fits - you can also see a little how the shoulders are wider and more floppy... which brings me to the first (well, on this round) unfortunate adjustment I made to the pattern and to what is probably the basis for all the badness going on...

Tucking the front neckline to remove gaping

OK, I'm including what I did here, even though this was an epic fail. But, in the interest of full disclosure and offering up my mistakes so that others may learn (I'm feeling a bit old testament here!) I'll show what I did.

The issue addressed with this adjustment is the gaping at the front neckline. In a very lazy and ill-advised move, I cut out a size 20 for this pattern when I should have cut a size 18 according to my high bust measurement. I was thinking I needed the larger size and could deal with the extra width at the shoulders since it was sleeveless. So I had some gaping issues. So I needed to pinch some excess out of the neckline.

Step one - I outlined the entire upper part of the bodice so that  once I started messing around with the neckline I could retain the original line of the sleeves.

step 1

Step two - I drew in a dart (shown below in pink) about .5" wide.

step 2

Step 3 - I folded the dart and smoothed the pattern down. After everything was taped down I cut out the pattern, following the outlines I had drawn in step one.

step 3

Theoretically, I now have a shorter neckline, with the arms in the original position. This should be a good thing, but the muslin clearly had problems in part because the entire neckline is too wide, making the sleeves sort of feel like they are about to fall off my shoulders. On to the next adjustment...


Raising the bustline/moving a horizontal dart
After trying on muslin 2, I realized that the bust point was WAY too low - the horizontal bust point needed to be raised by about 1". Normally, I have to lower my bust point a lot and I kept that in mind with this pattern. I think when I added length to the upper bodice in my first round of adjustments, that lowered the bust point significantly. So everything need raising up!

Step 1 - draw a box around the horizontal dart - shown in pink.

step 1

Step 2 - cut the horizontal dart out along the lines drawn in step 1.

step 2

Step 3 - fill in the empty box with wax paper. Measure and draw a line 1" above the lower edge of the box cut out in step 2.

step 3

Steps 4 and 5 - slide the cut out dart straight up so that the bottom edge lines up with the line drawn in step 3. When the piece is moved up, it will not line up/fit perfectly. Slide straight up the pink line on the right and tape everything down. Trim outside edge so the pattern is smooth.

I've shown below, circled in green, how I cut a very small wedge of the original outer edge away from the pattern in order to make everything look tidy.

steps 4 and 5

Moving up the dart point on the vertical dart

I also had to move up the point of the vertical dart - which is MUCH easier, although probably hard to see because of all my sharpie-scratch-outs on the pattern! Based on my measurements on muslin #2, I wanted to move the dart point up about 2.5". The new dart point is shown in the yellow box below and the dart point from muslin #2 is shown in the pink box. I redrew the dart legs to meet up at the new dart point.

Moving the vertical dart point

Adding ease to the bodice

Now that I've made the changes to the neckline and bust area, I am moving on to adding a bit more ease (or width) to the entire shirt. I start out with the front bodice, adding a wedge that starts below the horizontal dart and swings out to .5" from the bottom of the bodice piece.

It's a little hard to see, but the picture below shows that when I add in this manner, I want the new line to be exactly the same on the front and back pieces (in this case, bodice pieces). I made the change on the front bodice piece, then laid the back bodice piece directly on top, lining up the original edges of the pattern pieces and tracing the new wedge shape onto the wax paper taped to the back bodice piece. This way, the seam will flare out in the same place, hopefully avoiding unsightly lumps and wrinkles (other than the ones provided by my own flesh!) The new wedge is circled in yellow below.

adding ease to the front and back bodice pieces

Add ease to midriff and skirt

Since I added .5" to the top bodice piece, I need to also add that to the midriff and skirt pieces, otherwise they will not attach cleanly, with no gathering. I added .5" to both the midriff and skirt pieces in the same way, pictured below on the midriff pieces. I simply made a vertical cut on the pattern pieces and spread .5" apart, filling the space with tissue - circled in yellow below.

adding ease to the midriff pattern pieces

I also added another .5" to the very bottom of the skirt (not pictured anywhere!) by adding a wedge to the front and back skirt pieces in the same way I added the wedge to the bodice pieces, starting near the top of the seam to add width evenly from the top to the bottom.

Taking a look at muslin #3!

Adjustments complete, I sewed the whole thing together. As I said at the beginning of the post, I'm not as thrilled with this version. I think, in general, I liked the look of the more TIGHT version #2! But I'm thinking that in the final version, with the midriff piece interfaced and, you know, not being made of bedsheets, this version may end up looking better. There's something I'm not liking about the way the skirt of the shirt flares out on the sides, so I will be very careful to avoid curving those seams on later versions (the 18 more muslins I will undoubtedly make as well as the final version which I'll probably end up never wearing due to the painful memories associated with making it...)

The big problem with this muslin is in the front neckline and armscye area. There is just way too much fabric! At first I thought I could deal with it, but it really could be very sloppy looking in the final. I'm aware that I'm suffering from a bit of obsessive overfitting (that's a real disease, right?), but this is just crazy.

The picture on the left shows the bodice completely unpinned. I've circled the areas of concern in yellow - the big fold of fabric under the arm and right in the center of the chest.

In the picture on the right I've shown how I've pinned these areas up. The neckline gaping I removed by pinching out 1" of fabric on the left and right side of the chest. When I did this, it also brought the arms in, making them feel less like they were going to slide off my shoulders. I think when I make this adjustment for muslin #4, I will not move the arms back out like I did above for the neckline adjustment I did for this muslin.

I've pinched a full 2" out of the area under the arm. that's a lot of extra fabric! I was worried that I was taking too much out of the front bodice piece, but once pinned and viewed from the side, the side seam is still straight up and down, not leaning towards the front towards the armscye! So I guess all this extra fabric really IS in the front bodice!

 

Up next - probably pictures of me, wild eyed and haired, slashing old bedsheets into little tiny strips of fabric, tears streaming down my face...

Part II of a series of unflattering photos... or please, sir, may I have another muslin?

Muslin #2 for the fitted shirt (to go with the full circle skirt) is complete, and there's at least another muslin or two left in this project!!

Here's where we were and where we are...

Hmmmmm.... not much of a difference!! But there WERE quite few little changes I made!

Changes to the pattern pieces

The main problem with bodice back was the gaping neckline. I thought there was about 2" too much fabric, that extended down about 5 inches. To fix, I drew a dart on the pattern by the neckline about 1" wide, angling closed about 5" down. I continued one leg of the dart towards the bottom of the pattern piece - the dart and extended line are shown below outlined in yellow.

I then cut out the existing vertical dart and extended one leg up to almost meet (I left about 1/8" of paper uncut between the two lines) the cut I'd already made - shown below in pink.

Once these cuts were made I swung the pattern pieces so that the neckline dart was completely closed up and the vertical dart was wider - see below everything is all taped up and tidy, with the new, wider vertical dart outlined in pink.

The next thing I needed to do was add some ease to the midriff and skirt pieces of the shirt. I added about .5 inches (for 2" total) to the sides of the front and back midriff pieces using the pivot method. I've circled the little wedges I added in yellow below. I needed to keep the upper edge of the pattern pieces the same length so they would meet up smoothly with the bust pieces.

Next I moved on to the skirt pattern pieces. The first thing I wanted to do was widen the skirt pieces by .5 each so they would attach smoothly to the midriff pieces without having to do any gathering. I just cut the pieces vertically and slid the pieces apart about .5 inches. This is shown circled in yellow below. Then I wanted to add a little more width to the lower hem of the skirt, so I again used the pivot method (circled in green below) to add about another .5 inch (2" total) to the outer edge of each piece. Finally, I had previously added quite a bit of width to the center back piece (shown below circled in red). I just wanted to round out that seam a bit so it laid a little smoother.

Trying on Muslin #2

Adjustments made, I put together the muslin and tried it on. It fit better, although it still needs more ease and has a few problem areas. Shown below, circled in pink is the excess in the neckline that I'll need to pinch out. The other problem is in the vertical dart at the bust - more details on that below. You can also see from this photo how snug the midriff is - another inch or so of ease should help out with this!

Here's a shot of the bust point. I've marked the neckline and the midriff seam in red to help orient you! I marked the green lines while wearing the muslin by pinching out the excess and drawing a line along the fold. The dart point as sewn is circled in yellow, and the intersection of the green lines is circled in purple.

Below, I've turned the bodice inside out so that I could see the markings from another angle. The yellow line shows the stitch line of the dart, with the dart point on the right end of the line. The red X marks where the green lines meet up. I can see from this perspective that it will likely help quite a bit if I just move the dart point up dramatically to the red X, I'll just hand-baste the new darts into this muslin to see how it looks!

Next up... MORE unflattering photos (but I mastered between the first and second muslin the art of propping the camera on the shelf of the hutch and setting the 10 second delay, so at least I'm not contorting to get the photos from the mirror!!) and muslin #3....