Two muslins

I spent this past weekend making muslins for two dresses (Laurel and Elisalex) and realized that due to my limited knowledge on fit my adjustments generally leave me feeling one of two ways, frustrated or ecstatic. It can be SO frustrating to make something that doesn't fit and not know how or where to begin to fix it. On the other hand, that feeling you get after things suddenly make sense and the alterations work is an amazing feeling! That's how it goes with leaning, though.


The Elisalex sewalong is going on right now and before I cut into my wild fabric I want to have a muslin that fits well. Thursday night I started working on the bodice and everything went smoothly, including sewing princess seams for the first time (!), but the fit is off. It's funny, it's easier to pinpoint changes that need to be made on other people's makes, but so hard for your own. I slept on it before making any crazy changes and I think I need to do a narrow shoulder adjustment, does that seem right? Or do I need to make other changes too?

 The wrinkle on the center of the bodice front looks prominent in the photo above because of how I'm holding the camera in my hand. It's not as bad in the photo below.

In the past it has been suggested that I make narrow shoulder adjustments, but I didn't have much success with the method I was using. For my second muslin of the weekend (Laurel) I decided to try a different technique from Gertie's book. I made the shoulder 3/4 inch smaller and reshaped the curve for the sleeve. This meant that I needed to also adjust the sleeve cap, which I did successfully, yay!


The shoulder area no longer has the vertical lines, but now there are diagonal wrinkles :( Do you think it needs a FBA? I'm not sure, as I have never done one before. Or did I get too crazy with the shoulder adjustment and make it too narrow?

Even though Laurel isn't completely ready for its final fabric, I'm pretty excited that I learned a new adjustment (and did it correctly :) )! I'm dying to sew up this pattern, the fit is a lot more flattering that the shift dress I made earlier in the year.