The LMB draped dress - muslin
18 March 2010, 14:03As good as my word, I sewed up a muslin for my birthday dress (next week, birthday fans!), which will be the draped jersey dress from the Feb 2010 La Mia Boutique magazine, #6:
I sewed up the muslin in a viscose jersey, chosen for its very similar draping to silk jersey (with the bridesmaids’ dresses also in silk jersey, I bought TONS of this!), but it is pretty thin and see-through so it’s really only ever going to be good for muslins. After sewing a size 44 in the turtleneck and finding it quite roomy, I decided to go with a 44 here, too, even though I should be a 46 according to their size charts. This is sewn up exactly as per their paper pattern, with no alterations.
Here’s the front, side, and back views of the muslin:
Overall not too bad, fit-wise, but there were a few places that I think I can really improve on the design (and one or two spots where I can improve my order of construction, so I’ll update that to reflect it!).
Things to change:
- That upper bodice overlay is dowdy and way too square – it should form a nice V shape with a narrower skirt overlap, too.
- Way too long in the hem – cut off about 4 inches so it’s above the knee
- Sleeves too long – shorten by 2 inches (though strangely, that high sleeve cap seems okay)
- Shoulder too long – take off one inch to pull the sleeve seam up to my actual shoulder
- Underarm pulls away when I raise my arms – I have no idea how to fix this. Anyone? The armscye is nice and high, and I notice other teeshirts do this for me, so maybe it’s not a big deal? I compared this armscye shape to BurdaStyle’s Lydia which fits me well, and there isn’t much difference there at all…
- Back skirt is rather clingy – line it!
The skirt front drape pulls the line out a bit in the side view, too, but I’m totally fine with that. It’s a forgiving style and it just means the skirt won’t be so clingy there.
To alter the front to fix the square overlay and make it more V-shaped, I wanted to take width away along the centre front (the jersey is plenty stretchy enough to take it!). So on my muslin I first sewed away 1/2 inch from the CF but it wasn’t quite enough, so I upped it to 1” from the CF fold (thereby taking 2” of fabric out overall), and I think the overall line is much better now. So I’ve made the change on pattern pieces #7 (inner upper front) and #11 (inner front waistband) as the rest can just be gathered tighter to fit the changes.
Here’s the altered front (the CF seaming won’t be there in the final version):
So with this and my gardening seed order arriving, I’m up for a busy weekend (the wheelhouse is the BEST for seed propagation, lemme tell you! )!
Tags: dress, la-mia-boutique, muslinComments:
Mentally sewing the LMB draped dress Pre-birthday miscellania
These kind of posts are soooo helpful for beginners like me. Thank you! I can’t wait to see the finished dress.
— Rachel Mar 18, 02:38 PM #
Check, first 3 changes are good. It’s not just the shoulder that is too wide, it’s the front armscye too. This is why the sleeve is rising like that. It’s just too wide and is way past the front arm crease.
I do think that you need to add more to the hip, not just line it. The back gathers are pulling sideways and lining it won’t help this. It needs to drape a bit more gracefully.
Don’t shorten the sleeves until you adjust the shoulder as this will probably take care of the extra length. In fact, I am not sure that the sleeves need taking up anyway, depending on the depth of your hem, or is there none cut on this muslin? I also am not sure what’s happening at the side, where there are some diagonal wrinkles. Do you have the latest Threads issue? KK continues his fitting series and shows how to fix bias wrinkles in a manner way too complicated for me to relay here.
— Nancy k Mar 18, 07:47 PM #
I’m not sure about the armscye issue but you are right about the shoulder width, although I think taking off an inch there may be too much. I agree with you on the bodice gathers and with Nancy k on the hip. One thing I’d like to add is that in the first pictures the sleeves seem rather tight on your upper arms (which makes the already too long shoulder look worse). It may be a trick of the fabric, but if it’s not, it could very easily be solved by just adding a very small amount of width (in the order of half a centimeter) to the overall width of the sleeve without changing anything at the sleeve head. That way, if the sleeves turn out too wide in the end (for example because the fabric behaves differently), you can just take them in again
— lauriana Mar 19, 07:44 AM #
The magazine image seems like it could have a bit of gathering at the shoulders—but I guess you would notice if the back piece fit or not. It also seems more gathered on the ‘waistband’. Yours does look more gathered in your altered version.
— JenL Mar 20, 03:49 AM #
I do agree – it should drape more round the hips, and the shoulder could loose a 1/2 inch/a cm.(the back piece, in front you can gather the extra fabric).It will be a terrific dress, especially in that beautifull color!
— Teddie Mar 20, 02:27 PM #
One thing I would try to fix the sleeve/armscye issue is the sleeve cap itself. I am guessing the sleeve cap itself might be too narrow — try making it maybe 1/2 inch wider a third of the way down from the shoulder point to the sleeve seam on the sleeve pattern on each side. You might want to trim off a very small amount off the top of the sleeve cap after you increase the width, but try it on without trimming first. I’ve had a similar issue with a woven top (raising arms made side of bodice pull away and sleeve looked tight), and widening the sleeve cap fixed the problem. Btw, I always have to fix the sleeve caps on Burda patterns that way, so that the sleeve isn’t pulling. So, compare this sleeve to one of the BWOF sleeves you already have traced and check the sleeve cap width.
— Olga Mar 21, 08:32 PM #
I second using a well fitting sleeve pattern and applying that to this dress. Also I think the construction of the front bodice piece is part of the problem. The gathered shape makes the side stand out and I don’t really know how to fix it since the design needs the extra room for the gathers. A third observation is that the front armscye is very shallow, normally the front is more deep than the back and the front sleeve cap is also more rounded. See this post for a good guide. http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/sleeve_cap_ease_is_bogus/
— Johanna Lu Mar 22, 10:58 AM #