Saturday, September 13, 2014

Still At It

This is muslin 4B.  I think I have the shoulder seam placement and neckline right.  I really did need to lower both the back neckline and shoulders 5/8". I raised the front shoulders 5/8".  Not sure If I needed to raise the front neckline too, but I did.  What's odd is that I had to do a very tiny forward shoulder adjustment; it wasn't even 1/4". I also discovered I have narrow shoulders. I took 5/8" off the length.



Time to move on to the back. I did add 3/4" to the upper back earlier, but it wasn't enough. I figured that since 3/4" wasn't enough and I needed to taper to a size 22 at the waist anyway, I would try adding the difference between the 16 and 22 across the whole back. That's 1 1/2".

The pattern has a 1" back shoulder dart. Does this mean that the dart now needs to be 2 1/2"?  I'm having a difficult time drawing the new dart, so I am going to make a new muslin, attempt to pin it in and then adjust the pattern. Of course, all of this is academic if it turns out I don't need 1 1/2" across my upper back. I'm torn by this. Awesome because it would mean that I'm smaller than I gave myself credit for, but boo because I'd have to change the alteration.

I didn't realize I'd made so many muslins just to fit my shoulders. Who cares because I'm so happy I figured out what to do to get the shoulder seams in the right place. I am a little nervous because the front bodice is self-facing cowl and doesn't have a neckline seam. You kind of need a neckline seam to make shoulder alterations. I just hope I can join the front and back properly when I'm done with all these alts. It looks a hot mess now. I'll definitely have to make a least one muslin with the self-facing.  

The only drag in this process is that my cotton muslin from Jo-Ann is off-grain! It's the only muslin I have left and the cheap in me won't go and buy more. I purchased it months ago and have used quite a bit, so I can't take the rest of the bolt back. I have torn it from the bolt instead of cutting. I have pulled opposite corners. I have tried to coerce with steam. Sigh. I threw the remaining yardage in the washer hoping for a miracle. I haven't used it since, so we'll see what happens today.

Fall hit Chicago like a ton of bricks two days ago. I'm already thinking about B5523!