I had even picked out the perfect fabric- a beautiful pink with white polka dots! I had dreams of vintage perfection. I did 3 muslins and really tried to make this pattern work, but it just wouldn't.
But, not all is lost! I have learned a lot from the experience. It has been a really long time since I really sewed for myself and I am still having a lot of problems fitting. I have lost a lot of weight and totally changed my body shape so at least I have a good excuse!
I think the problem that I ran into with this pattern is that it is a wrap with a cut on sleeve, but no darts. I needed to do an FBA, but ran into problems because the cf is not on grain. I even tried to de-draft (is that a word?) the pattern to take it to its basic shape and see how it was drafted, but that didn't work.
I have not totally given up on this pattern, but have set it aside for a little while while I practice my fitting skills on something a little easier- like my pattern for the PR Vintage Pattern Contest!
Here is my pattern again-
I traced the pattern because I want to keep the original intact. I can't replace it if I mess it up. I must say that I really like the details on this pattern. It is only a front and back, sleeves attached, and facings. Really simple! But it has great details, like 3 darts on the back sleeve for elbow shaping!
Since I knew I would be doing some grading on this pattern, I pin fitted to see how bad it was going to be and to measure for the FBA- it wasn't going to be as bad as I thought!
I have concluded that I need a fitting budy! Tissue fitting yourself is really hard!
After all of that, I made up a muslin. Only one this time! I am getting better! But I must say that it now looks like a Frankin-muslin. I have realized that some of my fitting issue may be that I don't like as much ease in my clothes as they put in the pattern. The first fitting looked like a shapeless sack, even with all those darts! All I have done since then is take in and reshape darts! And the ever needed sway back alteration.
Now that almost all of the changes that are needed are done, I think I will do one more muslin from scratch to check all of the changes before I touch my fashion fabric. But that works out because I don't have all of my supplies yet, still looking for seam binding locally. I may just break down and order some.
