There is a God. And she wears tailored clothing, bless her divine heart! Every now and then something goes according to plan… like my Emery Dress. I am so glad now that I took my time to really think about what I wanted out of this dress, that I got über REAL about my current body/fit issues, and that I decided to mesh together two dress sizes (which worked perfectly!).
I wanted this dress to fit me well at my bust line (am now wondering if said clothing Goddess also suffers from inconveniently full boobs), sleeves that fit around my biceps (she also lifts weights, I know it!), and both things allowing me to move my arms in a full range of motion. You’d be surprised at how much range of motion is limited when just one of those two factors is off (i.e. too tight). I also decided I wanted a little extra ease in the waistline because I am tired of dresses cutting me off at the waist when what I really want is to be prepared in case I need to run from zombies.
For this muslin, I sewed it rather quickly using basting stitches. I didn’t bother with the pockets, bodice lining, or collar (I’m still undecided if I’ll add in this detail). Since it was just a mock-up to test for fit and make adjustments (which it turns out I planned for well on the pattern pieces themselves, but having basting stitches would allow me to more easily rip them out and make adjustments), I also didn’t bother with cleaning up any gathering stitches or hemming the skirt or sleeves.
Due to all those quick-test factors, when the muslin sits on the dress form it looks rather sad and lumpy; but when I put it on, the front bodice darts fall precisely & correctly; the back neck darts remove the excess fabric which usually leaves the back of my dress wrinkling and buckling around the zipper. I also like that with the extra bit of ease in the waist, it hangs just a smidge below my natural waistline, which I find a lot more comfortable and also looks more flattering.
Things that make me giggle are when I do silly things like set in one sleeve inside-out but set in the other sleeve correctly. If that had been fashion fabric, I would have been cursing under my breath while ripping out stitches, but with a muslin… it’s not that deep. The sleeve fits and that’s good enough for me!
Now I’m excited to cut the fashion fabric. I’ll start with my black on gray letter print and after that one turns out successfully, I’ll cut & sew my SXSW dresses in assembly line fashion, but I’ll mix and match sleeve and collar variations between the three. Four new dresses! Squee!!
