Vogue 8648 - Muslin

I have been enjoying my Craftsy Couture Dress Class with Susan Khalje immensely.

She is an excellent instructor, and I just love learning new tips!  Personally I like the couture process of hand stitches, basting, careful manipulation and complete control.  It brings order to a chaotic world and helps me calm down.  I appreciate that it is not for everyone, which is fine.  Hopefully there is room for everyone at the sewing table:)

This is my muslin for Vogue 8684.  One of the suggested patterns for the class

I made very few alterations initially to the pattern outside of my fba.

I like using my above bust measurement as the starting point and comparing that to the full bust on the pattern.  This generally provides the more secure fit that I prefer.

In this instance though it did require that I give myself more room all around..sigh. But if I had gone up one size it would have been to wide at the shoulder, so it all works out and this is the advantage to making your muslin.

I released the side seams 1/2" on both sides, but then took out a scant 1/4" on the skirt front princess seams.

  

The back princess seams were let out that same scant 1/4" from the hip line down to the hem.

I used my dress form for this initial fitting and look forward to seeing how they transfer to my actual body.

I will say its a dream for seeing proportion and balance.

This piece of merlot silk dupion is a possibility for this dress.  

Someone just might invite me to a cocktail party or wedding and I think this might be suitable.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a dress in my closet, ready to go, for just such a possibility?

I am currently playing with what grain lines I want to employ on this garment.  If I put the entire garment on the cross grain the slubby texture will run the length of my body.  The pattern calls for all of the side panels to be on the bias and I am not sure yet how I feel about this.  I do love the way the bias works but will I like the way it looks?  I am kind of leaning in that direction just because it sounds fun, but what it really sounds like is that its time to play with the fabric some, and take some more pictures:)

Any thoughts dear readers?

1912 Project Blouse #1000 Muslin Complete

I took a half day off of work, which is to say cape sewing, to finish the muslin for blouse #1000.

The last time we looked at the muslin it still needed its sleeves, front waistband and collar.

Now it has all of its appropriate parts.....attached even - lol

You can just see a bit of the front waistband.  I cut 2 pieces 1-3/4" x 12-3/4" to create the waistband and waistband facing.  This creates a finished waist measurement of 24".

Take one of your waistband strips and press to the wrong side along one long edge and both short edges 3/8".  This will become your waistband facing.

Sew the waistband onto the shirt front gathering between dots. 

Repeat with the facing piece, sandwiching the blouse between the two and being careful to leave the facing free from the seam allowance edge on both short ends.

Press your seam allowance towards the waistband.

You can now sew your side seams.

Once you have attached the peplum you can finish the waistband by hand stitching the facing in place to cover the seam allowance.

I love how in this angle you can really see the appropriate silhouette for the time period. A little more bust and you would have less drooping at the front waist. Remember my dress form is 2" smaller at the bust than the pattern measures.

  Notice though how this right(seen on the left) sleeve drags a bit to the back of the blouse?

This sleeve hangs correctly because the peak of the shoulder is siting in the correct place and the gathering is distributed correctly.  

You can replicate this by:

 Placing a notch on the front bodice 3/4" forward of the shoulder seam, that will mark the actual shoulder.  Remember how the shoulder seam favors the back of the blouse?

Now place a corresponding notch on the sleeve cap in the center of the tuck lines.  Doing this will make setting in the sleeve much easier and prettier.

The cuff does not quite meet at the center to expose the tuck detail, but some gathering is required to make the sleeve fit the cuff.  

The total amount of gathering is 1-1/2"  I placed dots (to gather between) on my sleeve pattern 1-1/2" on either side of center for a total of 3".  Stitch a gathering line between these dots and adjust to fit your cuff.

The pattern allows for a 1/2" finished placket and you might want to add a little more to this depending on the size of your buttons. 

The peplum allows for a little more fullness over the seat than my dress form has, but should accommodate a "real" seat quite nicely, maybe even a bit of a bustle.

I finished the collar by using a narrow piece of self bias as a facing strip.  

From the looks of my collar though it appears as if I may have one side on back to front.....I thought I double checked that, but that extra bit of lift there on the left side lets me know something is not quite right.

Boy you can really see it in this shot.  

The collar fits in beautifully though if you leave a 1/2" space at the center front.

Now its time to adapt a muslin for contemporary wear....But before I can do that I  need to rig a roman shade, alter a bridesmaids dress and cut out another Bat Cape.

What will you be sewing today?

1912 Project - Blouse #1000 - Muslin

I have made some small progress on my first 1912 project blouse..

This is the illustration that accompanied my pdf pattern.  There were no instructions but the templates for the embroidery work on the peplum cuffs and collar are included.

The pattern is labeled for a 36" bust

The measurments on the blouse are:
Bust: 37-1/2"        
Waist: 23"            
   Hip/peplum width at hem: 43"
Sleeve length: 15-5/8"    
   Bicep: 14-5/8"

My size 6 dress form measures:  Bust 35-1/2", Waist 24", Hip  34".

While taping my pattern together I noticed a few grain lines that did not match up....which makes me question my taping, but if  you follow the stitch lines you can't be to crazy off, right?....

  

Once the pattern was taped I began trueing it up.  The first thing you notice is that the back side seam measures 1" longer than the front.

The collar pattern has one of those mismatched grain lines and is not the same size as the template.  The center back seam is not indicated on the back pattern piece so at this point I am unsure which pattern is correct. 

There is no pattern piece for the waistband...hmmm

Additionally the tucks indicated on the pattern are in three different sizes:

5/8" on the fold, on the center front pattern piece

3/8" on the fold, on the back pattern piece

&

1-1/2" on the fold, on the sleeve

This is confusing to me and I am not sure if its a digitizing over sight or what.....

I chose to make them all the same size (5/8") because they look to be all the same in the illustration.  But the reality of the situation is it doesn't really matter what size you make because you need to stitch them up on your fabric prior to cutting the pattern pieces out.  

If you are unfamiliar with this process, no worries I will show you more about this when I make up the actual blouse.

For the muslin the tucks are not required, so you could skip this step for your muslin process if you like.

Here is my muslin without its sleeves or collar.  Fortunately I have a size 6 dress form, very helpful for this process, as it takes some of the guesswork out of it. 

The 3/4 view shows you how cleverly the fullness is kept to the front, while the rest of the garment hugs the body...and I mean hugs.

In this shot you can see how the side seam favors the back as it approaches the armseye.

You might be asking yourself at this point what happened to that 1" difference along the side seam..

  

I decided at this stage to baste the peplum on 1' higher across the back of the bodice. 

Once it was all together it occurred to me the difference in the side seam length might explain the missing waistband piece...Could the waistband sew to the front only making up the 1' difference needed to match up to the back?  Will try that next so stay tuned.

..

The shoulder seam favors the back as well, not at all unusual in garments from this period. 

And finally we have the back, which will fit better once that peplum gets moved down an 1"

I am looking forward to sewing the sleeves, collar and adding that waistband so don't forget to check back to see how that effects things.

This is my kind of mystery I tell you what:)

Eva Dress Contest - 1937 blouse #7482 Muslin

Here is the muslin for my Eva Dress Contest entry.

I love this blouse.  I was a little surprised by the amount of fullness in the sleeve cap and initially thought I would reduce it a touch.  But that would not be holding to the rules of the contest....and when I tried it on, it just looked great!  I love the way the neckline curves up onto the neck, don't you?

Chuck says "Wow! That is perfect for you...very nice"

I am pleased and looking forward to making it up in my wool challis.

Now about the pattern....

The instructions for sewing the neckline facing and attaching the lower bodice to the upper bodice are .....out of date, although possibly easier then how I chose to do it.  There is not a separate neck facing, just extensions along the front and back neck edge that get turned back and blind hemmed in place.

The instructions want you to overlap the shoulder seam - meaning fold back the seam allowance along the back shoulder, gather the front shoulder, Lay the folded back shoulder onto the front shoulder and edge stitch.

Here you can see the Blouse back, at least one shoulder and half  of the neck.

I stay stitched the edge, clipped into it and placed the front shoulder to the back shoulder with right sides together and stitched.  It is a bit tricky getting around that turn, similar to a shawl collar. Once both shoulder lines are sewn you can turn your facing back and blind stitch as suggested.
This technique is repeated to attach the lower blouse front to the upper, but again I placed right sides together and stitched.  You could certainly add the edge stitching after, if you like the look.

From here I will play with the gathering distribution on that sleeve cap, this might have been a misunderstanding of the patterns marks on my part.
Can you see the difference between the illustration and my muslin?  Yikes!

I also need to adjust the sleeve hem and placket which is simplicity itself as it has no placket piece, but has you create a placket from the under arm sleeve allowance and using hem tape to finish.  For authenticity's sake I will finish it that way.  The hem line though is uneven forming a peak at that underarm seam, which needs to be leveled out.  This might have occurred when I adjusted the length of the sleeve....I will be sure to post a tutorial on how to fix that simple and commonly found error.