Muslin Malaise

Have you ever ended up at the point in a project where you've hit a wall?

I'm sort of there right now. I conquered my nemesis pattern and it felt good, but afterward... well... there's this sense of "what now?"

I'd planned to make a 1944 Vogue vintage reissue suit and blouse with the nemesis pattern, but I needed to clear my head. So I decided to work on a more modern Vogue pattern that had a vintage feel.

I made the dress in the upper right corner of the image. Since I was making a muslin, I opted to use a thrifted twin size bed sheet and some leftover white cotton from my stash. I have to say, that the common thought that Vogue patterns are more complicated than others really is bogus. In my opinion, a modern Vogue pattern is far superior to their less expensive counterparts by the other Big Three pattern companies. Simplicity, I'm looking at YOU.

There was only one little quirk where I scratched my head a bit before proceeding. The sleeve cap/lining was a teeny bit tricky, but once I got it dealt with it was an a-ha! moment. From there on, it was extremely smooth sailing.

I started with a size 20 (bust 42") since that most accurately reflected my bust size and graded the waist up 3" to fit. However, this dress must have had a TON of ease, because after getting it together, the sleeves were 2" too wide at the shoulder and the bodice back was 2" too wide at the top of the zipper and 1" too wide at the waist. I probably could have used the size 18 pattern and graded the waist up a teeny bit rather than adding 3/4" to each side seam and then cutting it down again by 1" in the back.

Since I traced the pattern off, I'll just make my adjustments to the traced pattern and go from there when I'm ready to make my "real" version. For now, here's the *very* wearable muslin!