November 13, 2013

That dress muslin!

Are you still interested in the 1930's inspired dress I want to make from my green wool crepe?
I know progress is slow. Nowhere near my usual pace, to be precise. And I don't really know why. This is not a busy time at work so there should be plenty of time for sewing. All that time just seems to slip away…

Anyway, I sewed up a muslin today. Because I was afraid my pattern might be too large for the amount of fabric I had, I measured out the muslin fabric carefully: no more than 2 meters, at 140 cm wide. It took some tetris skills, but I managed to get all of the pieces out that. The only real sacrifice was having to reduce the flare of the inserted skirt piece. I was a bit worried about that, but decided to have a look. 

Looking at the dress now, I don't mind the slight flare of the skirt. And I like the pointed shape of the inserts. I don't really care for the neckline though. I let the front sleeve meet the neckline at the shoulder seam and the cowl neck connects at that point too. I think that combination makes the upper bodice look to high and square. I will have to re-do the front bodice and top of the sleeve. I'll put the raglan seam lower in the bodice and make the cowl neck a bit deeper. And of course, the real fabric has a lot more drape than this stuff I'm using for the muslin.

There are some fit adjustments to make as well: it's a bit tight at the lower ribs. This must be caused by the way in which I grafted that point onto the skirt without darts and I think I know how to compensate for it. It only needs a little bit fine-tuning anyway. There's also too much of a curve on the sleeve just past the shoulder. I've pinned it and I can just shave a bit off the curve in the pattern. And I will have to re-position the elbow dart. It should be about 3 cm higher. I had the same issue in the kimono sleeve muslin for the drape skirt, so  it was no surprise. It makes me want to check the sloper though…
I may narrow the lower sleeves a bit, but I'm still considering that. 
Normally, I don't make dresses with long sleeves. I'm always afraid that would make them look really frumpy. In this case, I was following the inspiration from the 1930's: narrow long sleeves. And I think it works with this silhouette. 

Oh, and there two things not quite right in these pictures which don't worry me: the hem (result of the improvised skirt insert pattern piece) and the odd bulge in the back (I paid attention to pinning the side opening before taking pictures but I was mostly paying attention to the skirt and of course, I could only see the front of the dress).

And then there's something else to consider. Using two fabrics, or both sides of silk crepe satin, in one dress was very common in the 1930's and I just happen to have some satin (supposedly silk, but I didn't test) which matches the colour of my wool crepe. It's thin and shiny so I don't want to use it in large surfaces or in fitted parts of the dress. But it might be very nice for that draped neckline. Using a different fabric for that would allow me to make it wider and maybe put some pleats in.
I knew about that matching fabric before but I'm only considering it seriously now. What do you think?

1 comment:

  1. The muslin looks great…I love those skirt insets from the 30s and the back yoke is amazing too! Can't wait to see it in the green!!

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