Experimenting with the muslin

I have been working on the muslin for the dress on and off for months now. At first I was trying to draft my own bodice pattern from saran wrap using Heather Clause's wrap method. It was going good until I tried to draft the sleeve pattern. When I sewed the sleeve in, it threw my whole pattern off and I could never get a good fit. It was very frustrating.
This is the saran wrap sloper when I first cut it off my body. For more information about how this works see the Fashion Incubator's blog.


So....finally I decided to just go with a regular pattern with a similar bodice and adjust it to fit. I've been adjusting and re-working the muslin for some time now...changing the neckline, sleeves, etc. Finally, the other day I was down to the final muslin bodice and decided it was time to practice with some cheap satin, organza, and underlining fabric. Here I am basting the 3 layers together for each bodice piece.






















It is important to baste these layers together because they are treated as one piece when they are sewed together. I hand baste them because it is the "couture" way to do it, =) and because the layers could slip if I did it with the machine. It is really important that these layers don't slip around.

My dress will have an organza overlaying the satin fabric. The interlining is a stiff cotton broadcloth which will give the bodice stability and body.

I use giant washers for weights...they work great!

















This is a closer picture of my bodice back pieces. Because this is a practice run, I used red thread for visibility. I basted right along the stitching lines so that I could make sure I got the seamlines matched up perfectly on the princess seams.

More progress and pictures coming soon!