Bebe Dress Sew-a-long Part 3 Make the muslin

***7/6/12  This post is unfinished- it is missing some photos but I wanted to get it up quick so that Kristi has photos while she is working on her muslin 

:) 

Today I sewed up my muslin for The Bebe dress and I am so excited! It looks great! This pattern is beautifully drafted and easy to alter. I am going to show the process I used today to  fit this pattern to me. If you have any questions or problems- comment and I  help you!

 I transfered the dart markings from the pattern-  to the muslin using good old fashioned carbon paper and a tracing wheel .     The carbon ink is permanent so only do this on muslin!  I like to use carbon paper on muslins as the lines are bright and clear to see.   And it is  dark enough for you to see in photographs. On the real version I will use either dressmakers carbon paper or a disappearing fabric pen. I do not care for the wax free dressmakers tracing paper, the kind that is chalk. It is just  a personal preference. 

Ok! let's get crackin'!! :) 

Snip a tiny snip at the edge of the darts- do this to each dart leg. This makes it easier to line up the dart legs.  be sure it is tiny! The seam allowance on this dress is 1/2- DO NOT GO PAST THAT.   We just want a tiny snip to see where the legs are when folding them together. 

The pattern instructs us to fold the darts right through the dart point.  I then finger creased the fold.  Finger creasing is using - yep! your fingers to put in a crease or mark . I got everything lined up and smushed down on the fabric with my fingers. An iron could  put a permanent crease here and we just want the crease to hold long enough for us to make sure the darts are perfectly lined up. 

I lined up the dart legs while making sure the crease went right through the dart point. This took a couple of minutes so don't worry if it takes  a couple of tries to get it right on the point. 

I put a pin in the the dart point first and work out from there. The pin at the dart point makes sure that when you sew, the dart  doesn't move. Pin the dart in place, checking to make sure the dart legs are matched up.  You can also stick  a pin though one side of the dart leg and look at the other side to make sure both legs are exactly lined up. 

Put a pin in the dart point to ensure accuracy  on your dart.

Set your machine on  the longest straight stitch you have- a basting stitch. We are going to baste the muslin together.   This allows us to just pull thread out super fast  if we need to make changes.  Thread up your machine with a dark or bright  colored thread.  This allows us to easily  see stitching lines when trying it on.  

  Sew from the raw edge of the dart to the point , SLOWLY.  At the tip of the dart point sew off the edge one or two stitches. Lift up your presser foot and pull the fabric away form the machine and clip the threads, leaving long tails. Tie these threads together with two knots. Do not trim the threads - leave the threads long in case you need to pull them out to change the dart. 

Do this to all four darts. Press. Press the side darts downward and the smaller under bust darts towards the center. 

The pattern instructs us to trim the  side bust darts down to 3/8. We will not do this on the muslin as we are doing this for fit, not to wear, and if we trim it, we cannot make adjustments. 

All of the darts have been sewn and it is ready for pressing. 

FIT AS YOU SEW.

Try on the bodice at each stage when construction it. 

You can tell a lot at this stage by just holding the bodice up to you and looking.  A great way to do it is wear a form fitting t-shirt and pin the muslin front to the t-shirt. That way your hands are free to mark and pin. 

  I discovered that on me the under bust darts extended too far up. Not by too much, but enough that it made my  girls look kinda funny shaped.  I measured using my seam gauge and the dart was @ 1 inch too high.  The side bust darts were just fine.

The bodice front  is  pinned to my shirt
so I can look at it on me.
The flash went off for some reason. Sorry :) 

I removed the stitching in the under bust darts,  measured down one inch and made a dot. I drew a straight line from the dot to the dart legs original position. Then I  re-stitched the dart, still using a basting stitch. 

After the darts are all done  and pressed,  stitch  front  bodice to the back bodice pieces. 

I put in a zipper for fitting. It is just to hold the dress together as it will be in the final version so I can get a good look at the fit. It is basted in, I can rip it our and reuse it on something else. 

By putting a zipper, in it tightens the bodice around me and I get a very good look at how it is fitting. if you leave the muslin loose,  you aren't getting an accurate fit. 

XX pic of zipper XXX

Now under bust darts have been adjusted and look much better.

The side bust darts are a touch poufy at the tip. On the real version I will solve this by either tapering the dart farther away from the tip or by sewing the dart on a curve.   I will photograph this so you can see ot/ 

Everything fit nice but there was an extra bit of fabric just under the arm. I measured 1/2 inch in from the top edge of the side seam , and drew a line angling down to the original seam allowance at the bottom of the side seam  and then sewed on this line. This took out the floppy bit at the top edge.

XXXX picture of side seamXXXX

I tried it  on one more time (fit as you sew! fit as you sew!)  and it felt wonderful. Nice fit, nice dart placement, I'm happy!

To get an even  better idea of how the  dress will look when finished, I folded down the seam allowance  on the neckline and one arm to see exactly where the seams would sit on my body.  

Using a medium length stitch (2.5-3.5) stitch away from the raw edge of the neckline and armscyes  on the seam line. This pattern has a seam allowance of 1/2 inch. ( Most commercial patterns are 5/8 inch  so be sure  to look and use what each  pattern calls for)

Make tiny snips up to the stitching line. I did it every inch or so. 

then press the seam allowance to the inside.

 It will look like this.

 Then try it on.  Now I know exactly where the neckline will fall.  The neckline on this dress is perfection, not too low-cut but not nun-like either.
     By folding in the armscye seam allowance, I could see where the seam would actually be. On the left side of the picture ( my right arm)  you can see how the fabric is flat around  the arm, just like it should be. On the right side of the picture, there is some gathering just under my arm. This is taken care of when the seam allowance is removed, as it will be when the dress is sewn together.

 While I was working on this, I took notes or each alteration I made.  I usually use a piece of paper taped up onto the wall so that as I stand in front of the mirror, I can easily write it down.

WRITE DOWN EACH THING YOU DO, even if you think you will remember it , because it is easy to forget what you have done.

My crazy cracker handwriting says:

•  lower the under bust dart by 1 inch
• take in side seam 1/2 inch angled from top of seam to bottom
• add 1/2 inch more to bottom of bodice - total 11/2 inch. 
• stitch a curved dart seam  on the side darts  to reduce puffiness in the dart tip. 

Ok!!! Muslin made, next  we will talk about fabric choices!!!