Dress Muslin Done, Almost

The house isn't entirely clean, but I worked on the dress anyway. Let me interrupt this blog to tell you that I have the most fabulous husband when it comes to tolerating me and my sewing obsession. He thinks it's me who tolerates him and his stuff, and I do. But I get the same consideration in return. It's a win-win situation. OK, back to the dress. The only alteration I made in the pattern was to cut the shoulders 1" narrower. As you can see in the SSP pattern tissue, there is major pulling, folding, and bunching around my prominent bust. However, it's not gaping at center front. The hips and waist fit, but the hem is about two inches shorter in the front. This is a knit dress and the SSP doesn't stretch, which I thought was the problem. I expected it to fit perfectly in the knit. Please don't laugh, I should know there is nothing perfect the first go round.

In the knit muslin, the bunching around the bust went away and left a nice sized unsewn bust dart. I didn't cut out the sleeves yet, so I don't know how sleeves will affect the dart flop. The front is now the same length as the back. Which is at least six inches too long for my 5'1" frame.

On Judy, my dress form, the center front was gaping, so I pinned out the excess, which you can't see very well in this picture. I had to remove about 1-1/2 inches. I marked this area, and eased all the excess in when I attached the binding.

Here is a better view of how the SSP pattern isn't fitting around my bust.

I'll have to put the sleeve in to get a better idea of what that bust flap will do. However, you can see that it isn't too low in the neckline and the armhole is good for me, at least in length.


This is how far I got before I remembered that I had to remake an XXL t-shirt I got at the Chickasaw Gathering last month. Last night was the tribal council meeting and I wanted to wear the t-shirt. However, this is what the shirt looked on me.


I used my TNT t-shirt pattern, KS 2900, which I've reviewed about a half-dozen different versions of this pattern here.


I really like the way it turned out. It fits beautifully through the shoulders and hips. I got lots of compliments on my new t-shirt. They especially liked the neckline treatment I used. It's something I saw in a recent issue of Australian Stitches. I'll do my first tutorial on the technique this weekend. Right after I get the bugs worked out on the dress.