V8795 - Muslin #2 - and 3 - and What I've Learned.

This is a simple pattern.   Really, it is.  Five pieces - 2 separate fronts, the back, the sleeves, and the collar.   Well, 6 if you count the facing for the right front, but because of the bulk that said facing creates I'm doing a cut-on facing.  That's one less pattern piece, and one less seam.  And on the left front, I'm using the fabric selvedge for the edge - no facing, no finishing.

Pretty darn simple, right?

Don't get me wrong, I LOVES me my Marcy Tilton designs!  If you've followed my blog at all, you know that already :)  But if you want this pattern (which is described as "semi-fitted") to actually BE semi-fitted, you may have some work to do.

With all of the fit issues this pattern is giving me, I am giving thanks that there isn't a whole lot of actual sewing involved to make it up!  I'm diving into the whole process headlong, and calling it a learning opportunity.   The good news? Light bulbs are actually turning on in my brain!   All of the reading I've done on fitting, and the tidbits of info I've filed away (whether they made sense to me or not) are finally giving me a few little "aha!" moments in working with this pattern, and some things here and there are beginning to make sense. :)

Here's muslin #2 - much, much better than #1 (yesterday's post)!

I adjusted the shoulder seam for sloping shoulders by lowering them another 3/8" at the sleeve edge.  This raised the lower armscye, and I realized that Belinda was spot on about the the armscye being cut very low.   It was also one of those light bulb moments for me.

So many little adjustments at the pattern level are simply counter intuitive for me.   Like this one - if a sleeve feels too tight at the armhole, and the bodice pulls so that you don't have enough movement, my logic tells me that you need to make the armhole larger.  But if you cut the armhole smaller, you end up with more freedom of movement.  I know I still have a lot to figure out about just which situations translate to which solutions where armscyes and wrinkles nearby are concerned, but this is one step closer for me. :)

However, see all those wrinkles on the upper sleeves?  Helpful folks over at the Stitcher's Guild thought I needed more sleeve cap - I had already removed a lot (which I do on a lot of patters - I really dislike sleeve cap puckers!), but adding some back did help (see Muslin #2.5, below)

The back, at this stage, is still a hot mess though :(  Gobs of fabric near the armscye.  Too tight at the hips, creating folds at the waist.  Wrong.  Just wrong.

On to muslin #2.5 (just a few adjustments, not an entirely new muslin.   That's yet to come.....)  The right arm (my right) looks MUCH better than the left, after adding back some sleeve cap height.

The back, however, is even WORSE than before!!!   I think I had adjusted the SA at the hip to add more fabric, but fabric folds and bulges and hills and valleys near the sleeves are oh so very very very wrong.   Still.

I had a devil of a time finding any solutions for the Battle of This Bulge, so I just took a wild guess at one, and removed some fabric from the back, at the side seam:

That's well over 1/2" removed at the armscye!

By the way, I did this AFTER re-cutting Muslin #3 (only the back & the sleeves, thank goodness - I was able to re-use the front & collar pieces *whew*).   So you can imagine what this did to the sleeves, which ALREADY had more ease than I like:

You can see that the Battle of the Bulge has been won (yay!) but just look at all of that sleeve cap pucker happening at the back of the sleeves!   Eeep!   The rest of the back is hanging much.  much.  better :)   (I adjusted the back seam to allow for more curve in at the waist & more out at the hips.   Although, one suggestion was to cut the jacket shorter, which I may do.

You can see that the upper back is too snug - I'm allowing for that to be taken care of by the knit fabric which will be the fashion fabric final.  (fingers crossed...)

The front is looking OK at this point.  There's a bit too much sleeve cap puckering here too, but the plan is to adjust the pattern & hope for the best.   Because Muslin #4 just ain't happening!

The adjustments I've made (so far):

• Narrowed the shoulders (I usually need to do this, but the shoulders on this patter were WAY wide)
• Forward shoulder adjustment (again, I usually do this, but it took several attempts to get it right on this pattern)
• Lowered the Sleeve Cap.   And raised it back a bit.  And lowered it again.
• Adjusted the curve of the sleeve.  Again.  And again.
• Eliminated excess fabric from the back, near the side seams.
• Raised the armscye (which was cut very low in the pattern)
• Created a back seam, so that I could give the boxy shape a bit more of a fitted look.
• Shortened the sleeves
• Broad Biceps adjustment (the nice way of saying arms-that-used-to-be-muscular-and-are-now-just-flabby adjustment)

I think that's all.   For now....

If anyone has any brilliant thoughts or suggestions before I cut into the Yummy Fabric, feel free to speak up!   Right now I'm feeling that the shift in fabric, from thin woven muslin to double-sided knit will either solve some of my issues, or create a batch of new problems.....wish me luck!