ME, in muslin

Well, I finished sewing up my body block muslin on Monday, and Gail fit it for me. It was rather strange, I have to confess, to have someone not in my family fit me. But on the other hand, she knew what she was doing better than anyone in my family does. So I'm not complaining, just noting.

We ran into problems because I kept forgetting to stand up straight. Instead, I would turn and look down to try and watch what she was doing. I didn't even do it consciously! She wound up setting up a three-way mirror so I could watch her in the mirror.

Here is my altered bodice. Interestingly, it still needed some pretty major alterations even though the pieces were made to my measurements. There's more than one way to carry a given set of measurements, I suppose. It's also pretty likely that the instructions assumed a symmetrical person!

 This is the back. As you can see, there are darts pinned going into the armscyes. (Did I spell that right? Spellcheck doesn't like it, but has nothing to suggest except armistices.) Gail says that those can be rotated up into the shoulder seam, which is where patterns are more likely to have them. The darts are needed because I have sloping shoulders and a rounded back. Other than that, the back fits pretty well.

 The front. Well. It came in at the neck, and in at the shoulders and sideseams, but the thing that threw me is that Gail took out about a half an inch all the way across the front above the bust--and then added about the same amount to the bottom of the bodice. Essentially, this changes where the fabric is, rather than how much there is. I had never thought to do that. (I guess this is why she earns the big bucks and I don't!)

This is my completed muslin. It looks pretty strange on the table, but it looks pretty good on me! Interestingly, wearing something so fitted makes me look more normally proportioned, not less. I had expected to look better in something that fit properly, but not necessarily better-proportioned.

Up next: altering the pattern pieces. Or maybe making new ones. I don't actually know what my next step will be!