I have a love hate relationship with my Macaron wearable muslin

Miss Crayola Creepy 5:00 AM Completed project 44 comments

I have a love hate relationship ~~with love and hate~~ with my Macaron wearable muslin. It was one of the more difficult dresses I have sewn up and I made plenty of mistakes to prove it. The actual pattern and directions were great, but with all the markings that had to be transferred there were bound to be some errors on my part. The good news is that when I make it again it will be easier, right?

I know, I know, I need to find a different spot to take photos. It's just that by the time I get home from work it's getting dark and my photo location spots are limited.

There is nothing better than a dress with pockets!

My side yard.

Frankie!!!! I love my pup!

The fabric I used is a Civil War reproduction print. It's one of those fabrics where you can't tell if it's black or brown. In the photo it looks more brown, but in person it's darker, almost black.

I was very proud of how the bodice turned out. Initially there was some slight puckering along the yoke that worried me, but by the time it was finished it wasn't an issue at all.

PROS

The final fit (size wise) was perfect and I didn't have to make any adjustments! It's form fitting, but not too tight. I could eat a meal and still feel comfortable wearing it.
Pockets!!!
Pleats were new to me so I learned a new skill.
The sleeve style is now one of my favorites.
It's a dress that can be worn out to a nice dinner, to a meeting, or out to run errands. Hopefully I will wear it out to dinner this Friday when I go out to celebrate my friend Krista's birthday :)

CONS

I struggled with easing in the sleeves and the gathers don't look consistent.
After doing the pleats, the dress front and back were different sizes, by a couple inches! I probably traced something wrong :( To fix it I made two of the pleats on the back slightly smaller and it worked. Next time I may just do gathers instead.
Fabric choice. I didn't start the project with a fabric in mind for the final garment, so I bought this cotton to use for the muslin. Fabric really inspires me and without an end fabric to look forward to I found it hard to get motivated. Does that make sense? I'm still not sure what I will be using the next time I make this.
The neckline size is a little small and I had trouble getting my head through the dress, granted this is coming from someone that has a HUGE head (literally) and can't find a hat that fits. When I wore this to take photos I made sure to put the dress on and then put on my makeup. If I had done my makeup before there would probably be foundation on the dress haha.

Now that I know what I need to do differently, I'm ready for round two!