The Adventure - Part 3

I am ever so glad I made a muslin!! This coat is huge! The pattern does say it's generously sized and it is.

I can no longer make a pattern right out of the envelope.  I take the upper bust measurement and use that number to determine my size. Using this measurement results in a better fit through the neck and shoulders. Then you make adjustments from there. The first fitting was so large I looked like I was wearing my mother's clothes.  Since it's white, it also looks like a baptismal robe. Harold joked that with piping it would make a nice minister's robe.

Problems:  the sleeve seams are falling off my shoulders
                   the neckline is too big
                   in general, it's just too big

I pondered how to fix it during dinner and finally decided to just take the fullness out of the center back seam. Typically you would evenly divide the fullness between all the seams. The front does not have princess seams. Even if it did, I would have to redo the neckline on all the pieces. While the back does have princess seaming and  I could have divided among those seams but once again I'd be messing with too much of the neckline. The back also has cut on sleeves and that was a nightmare I didn't even want to contemplate. In the end I took 1 1/2 inches total off the entire back center seam. The sleeves seams are still a fraction too big, but I can live with it. I'll just have to remember to also take that 1 1/2 inches from the collar, the back facing and the lining.  In general the coat just looks better. I also think that when the lining and shoulder pads are added, that will take up some more of the room.

I am wearing a jacket under this as I normally wear a suit to church. Tomorrow I'll add shoulder pads and see what that does to the fit.  If you look closely at the back, you'll see drag lines at the underarms. I'll have to do a high rounded back adjustment and that will fix that problem. The shoulder pads will also help.

Sewing this muslin was a nightmare and it was operator error.  I cut the side front wrong twice! I normally don't transfer a lot of markings to the muslin and in this case that was a big mistake.  When I get ready to cut the fashion fabric pieces I'll transfer all the markings with tailor tacks in different colors.


TTYL,

Melodye