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Word of the Day

Friday, January 25, 2008

In which I make a muslin of my "wearable muslin"


So I bought some cotton duck and some cotton lining fabric at Wally World, and was all geared up to start my "wearable muslin" for the Kwik Sew jean jacket. In a stroke of luck (the kind that sometimes happens when one uses vintage patterns) the person who had the pattern before I did had traced the pattern onto tissue paper in my size. And she had lengthened the pattern, too, which saved me a lot of trouble. (This sort of luck is equally balanced by the chance that you will find instead that the vintage pattern is missing pieces, or instructions, or has pieces from other patterns mixed in.) I cut all the pieces out of the duck, and started sewing that night.

Immediately something that had nagged at me while I was cutting the pattern pieces out made itself clear: the pattern has some bust shaping that doesn't really show in the illustrations on the envelope. Not only that, but the shaping is for someone who is not shaped quite the way I am. I had to do a small-bust adjustment (SBA) on the pattern. I was quite proud of it, since I worked it out with only vague recollections of having read how to do an SBA once. I tend to be that way when I'm in the middle of something. I hate to have to go and look up instructions, so I just wing it.

I had to stop there and make another muslin (unwearable), to make sure that the SBA was going to work right. That's what the hideous flowered thing in the pic is. I also had to buy an extra 3/8 yard of black duck at Wal-Mart since the cutting layout was so tight I didn't have extra fabric for the new pieces.

The really bad new is, I don't think this pattern is going to work for the corduroy and minky that I had planned for it. It is very tight fitting, too close to the body to allow for the thick lining. So after I finish the wearable muslin (which should be quite cute, in black with red topstitching, lined with a cherry print fabric), it's back to the drawing board for me in terms of finding a jacket pattern for the yardage I bought.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I usually end up with one of those patterns that has a piece missing...usually a VITAL piece!